Tapestry Topics A Quarterly Review of Tapestry Art Today www.americantapestryalliance.org Winter 2007 Vol 33 No 4 Celebrating 25 Years A Busy Time for Tapestry In A Wider Circle Workshops, symposia and exhibitions are great In this Issue incentives to leave your studio and meet with other 1982-2007 tapestry artists and tapestry aficionados. It is also a The ITNET Journal and good way to introduce a non-weaving friend to tap- its Evolution . 2 estry and broaden the tapestry circle. In keeping by Sharon Marcus with the theme of this issue of Tapestry Topics, "In Rebirth and Tradition . 4 A Wider Circle," we want to ensure you know By Ibolya Hegyi about the upcoming events that are rippling through Weaving Southwest . 6 the tapestry community. By Rachel Brown Weaving With Paper and Foils . 8 The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York By Carolyn Price Dyer City is presenting "Tapestries of the Baroque: My Visit to the Chavez Family . 9 Threads of Splendor." It runs from October 17 to Tricia Goldberg January 6, 2008. This exhibition, with its accompa- Panel Discussion nying catalog, is a follow-up to the earlier Installment #1 Metropolitan event highlighting tapestry of the ATA: Celebrating Twenty-Five Years of Contemporary Tapestry . 10 Renaissance and should prove to be a pivotal event. Moderator Mary Lane For more information visit www.metmuseum.org. Scheuer Tapestry Studio: continued... Tapestry as Collaborative Art . 14 By Ruth Dundas (formerly Scheuer) Interesting Discrepency. 15 By Linda Rees Channeling your Muse: ATA Educationa Retreat . 19 Volunteers Make It Happen: David Johnson . 19 By Mary Lane Volunteers Make It Happen: Priscilla Lynch . 20 By Lynn Mayne ATA Award to: Donna Loraine Contractor . 21 Carolyn Price Dyer, "Three Crows in the Produce Department," 18" x 18" x 1", 2004, handspun paper and cotton warp Newsletter of the American Tapestry Alliance Another event in NYC coinciding with the Met's Next Issue: Deadline: January 15, 2008 exhibition is a workshop by Susan Martin Maffei, "Connecting Image to Process/Process to Image." Hand Dyed Yarns, Michael Rohde has organ- ized a slate of interesting topics dealing with dyes. Inspired by Andean Textiles, this ATA sponsored Guest editor, Lany Eila, welcomes items for her event will have taken place by the time you read this, April 1st. theme "Representational or Abstract?" but we hope to hear about the workshop later. Various traditions of tapestry making around the world "TAPESTRY 2008; The Fine Art of Weaving" will have stressed pictorial motifs, abstract motifs or a be held in Canberra, Australia, May 1-4, 2008. This regionally distinct combination of both, to reflect the international conference will explore the relationships inherent structure of tapestry as well as the societal between Fine Art, Tapestry and Weaving through lec- functions of tapestry, for example, as a vehicle for nar- tures, workshops, seminars and symposiums. ATA ration or as personal identification. member, Jane Kidd is one of seven international This newsletter issue considers how the differing artists whose work will be featured in the exhibition: approaches of representational and abstract design "The Fine Art of Tapestry Weaving." We all have the have meaning in contemporary and historical tapestry. opportunity to participate in the symposium by enter- How have these differing approaches played out in ing the juried small format exhibition addressing the your work, and why? How does one approach (or theme: "Land." For more information contact combination) better express what you want to say? To [email protected]. We hope to have reports what degree does the tension between these approach- from those who attend. Please contact editor Linda es influenced your work? If pictorial imagery is used, Rees if you are going. and the structure of tapestry necessitates abstracting Plan to attend Convergence 08 in Tampa, Florida, such images, what is lost and what is gained, in visual June 22-28, 2008 to see the tapestry exhibitions terms, by pushing that abstraction or not. "ATB7" and "Woven Gems." ATA is sponsoring a post Convergence tapestry retreat: Channeling Your Muse, where participants will work with Mary The ITNET Journal and its Zicafoose (Nebraska) or Joan Baxter (U.K). For Evolution those unable to attend the retreat, the Board has invit- ed Mary and Joan to give lectures at the ATA general by Sharon Marcus meeting. The details are available elsewhere in this The International Tapestry Network (ITNET) was newsletter and will be on the website. organized following the International Tapestry We know many of you enjoy combining travel and Symposium in 1988 in Melbourne, approximately 5 tapestry instruction, so we have noted our educators in years after the founding of ATA. The two organiza- the "Members by States" and "Members by Country" tions had some striking differences from the outset. section located in the back of the current membership Helga Berry, the founder and president of ITNET, was roster. We have also updated the educators' listing born and raised in Germany, married an American, on the website. Educators can contact Jeanne Bates and moved to the US. She had a solid web of connec- at: [email protected] to be added to the website tions in the European tapestry community, a global listing. perspective, and a positive and energetic outlook on the future of traditional tapestry. Aware of the well- As the Holidays come into view and deadlines established history and credibility of tapestry in approach for "ATB7" and "Woven Gems," we hope Europe, she yearned to forge a connection between you are finishing tapestries and filling out entry tapestry makers around the world. ATA at that time Forms. It is not too late to consider a year end contri- was primarily committed to developing a network of bution to the Silver Anniversary Fund and not too North American tapestry artists, so ITNET served a early to consider giving a gift Membership or ATB valuable function by providing a wider context. One catalog to a friend. of Helga's primary goals was to mount juried exhibi- Happy Weaving! tions of tapestries from around the world that could tour in the US, showing off the vast stylistic range of Becky Stevens Linda Wallace contemporary tapestry. She and her organization of Member Services Resources volunteers were very successful in accomplishing that 2 Tapestry Topics Winter 2007 goal, not only through the exhibitions themselves, but tal cameras, photographs also came in varying degrees through the color catalogs which accompanied them. of quality. Although it was a huge amount of work, it was interesting and satisfying, and I loved the contact Members of ITNET received a quarterly with other artists working in tapestry around the world. Newsletter, which evolved into the more substantial However, by the end of 1994 Helga decided to discon- ITNET Journal. Helga's commitment to the interna- tinue the ITNET Journal. tional scope of the organization was bourne out through these publications as well as in the exhibitions. She Not satisfied to drop something which seemed so solicited World Correspondents from England, worthwhile, I decided to take it on as a project inde- Bulgaria, Portugal, Hong Kong, Lithuania, Ukraine, pendent from institutional sponsorship, changing the Ireland, India, Romania, Hungary, Italy, the Czech name to the International Tapestry Journal. The pro- Republic, Spain, Japan, Brazil, Norway, Uruguay, the duction group remained much the same, with the addi- Netherlands, and the USA. Through their valuable tion of Christine Laffer and Micala Sidore as transla- contributions to the Journal, readers had access to tors, Kristina Keller as proofreader, and members of information about artists, exhibitions and events hap- Tapestry Forum as mailing team. The "World pening in the world of tapestry each quarter. For those Correspondents" were re-named "International of us in the United States who had little direct knowl- Representatives," many continuing to write about edge of our colleagues in these far-flung places, the events in their countries as before, with contributors effect was exhilarating. It created a sense of being part from additional countries added, e.g. Argentina, of an international community of people working in Canada, Costa Rica, Denmark, France, Germany, tapestry. As the ITNET Newsletter morphed into the Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, and ITNET Journal, and editorship passed from Helga to Sweden. Seeking to provide more focused content, I subsequent editors, it also became an increasingly developed themes for each issue, advertising them in structured publication, with regular features, articles by the Journal ahead of time so those interested in sending World Correspondents, and a calendar of exhibitions, in contributions on specific topics would have advance competitions, conferences/symposia and educational notice to do so. During the three years I edited the possibilities. Journal, a variety of themes were addressed: Tapestry as Social Document; Commissions; Tapestry in the In the fall of 1993 I received a late night call from Year 2000; Tapestry in Context; Writings; Helga Berry. She was on the verge of discontinuing the Environment; Narrative/Text; Technology; Tapestry as ITNET Journal because Deanne Rubin could no longer Social Document II; Tapestry and the Body; Tapestry continue as editor, and she had no time to do it herself. and Education; and Ornament and Pattern. By the end She wondered whether I might be interested in taking of my tenure as editor we had also incorporated a regu- over as editor. After an hour or so of conversation I lar column on conservation with Portland conservator agreed to do so. At that time Tapestry Forum, a Sandra Troon, as well as other occasional segments. Portland based group of tapestry makers, was still in existence, and I solicited volunteers from that group, By 1997 my increasing teaching/administrative and as well as other ITNET members, to form a production studio responsibilities necessitated that the Journal find team.