ARTSPACE CINDERFORD NEWS

Textile 21

Textile 21 - created to celebrate Artspace's 21st Birthday

Textile 21 was a cross-generational project, bringing together all ages and abilities, to create a commemorative wall hanging to celebrate Artspace’s 21st birthday.

Initially, a group of nine young people embarked on some leadership training in April, with Rachel Shilston. They looked at issues such as leadership qualities, health and safety, child protection, equal opportunities, consultation methods, evaluation and pretty much anything involved with running a project! They also planned a visit to the local Sculpture Trail, where they all chose a short activity that they could ‘lead’ during the course of the day. The young people were responsible for delivering their activity and providing the resources and risk assessments. The activities were incorporated into a walk, which provided the young people with the opportunity to engage with six of the sculptures on the trail.

Armed with the new skills gained from their leadership training, they then went on to work with textile artist, Sara Weaving, to design a commemorative wall hanging, to celebrate Artspace’s 21st birthday. They embarked on five taster sessions with Sara where they learnt a variety of different textile techniques in order to create the wall-hanging. The young leaders then went on to help deliver a series of workshops, sharing their knowledge with people of all ages and abilities, to make the project a community art work.

Seventy-seven people took part in Textile 21. The whole process was documented in a book which incorporates photographs of all of the participants working on the textile, together with notes on the techniques used. The finished textile is in two sections, which now hangs in its permanent position in our Spiral Gallery alongside the book. The end result is a fabulous explosion of colour, with intricate details such as beading, printing and stitching – a wonderful celebration of Artspace’s coming of age! A big thank you goes out to everyone who got involved.

The project was funded by a grant awarded to us by the Joanies Trust.

Posted on Wednesday, December 09, 2009 by Roland | Permalink