"What journey this has been!”
It all began on 13 December 2017 when Joyce, Sara, Kathy, Tara and Jai viewed the Bicentennial Tapestry which was presented by the Northern Branch of the Guild to the Town Hall of the Launceston City Council in 1989. They had previously embarked on a mission to discover the whereabouts of the said tapestry. It was held at QVMAG.
The seed was planted - "Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could display the Tapestry in 2021 to celebrate the Guild's 50th Anniversary".
Idea - Could we reflect the collaboration of the Northern Branch in the nineteen eighties in an Exhibition at QVMAG to showcase the Tapestry together with collaborative work by Guild members from across the Tasmania? "Travellers' Cloaks" was born.
Congratulations and well done because we all achieved this seemingly impossible goal.
After a year of creating and making, using diverse skills and materials, during 2019, a truncated Exhibition was held at the Burnie Regional Art Gallery in March 2020.
All the wondrous cloaks have woken from their slumber. Joy and I had a road trip to Launceston on 2nd July to deliver the cloaks. Joy, Di and I worked together on 8th and 9th July to finish the installation. The 18 cloaks in all their glory are now magnificently displayed at QVMAG in Inveresk with the Bicentennial Tapestry. The Exhibition team at QVMAG, led by Alisanne, have done a marvelous job in displaying our members creations to their full potential.
There was a Guild Members preview on Saturday, 10th July and it was great to see so many members attend. After the preview, some of us visited Kerry, who lives in Perth and kindly opened her beautiful home for a celebratory afternoon tea - thank you Kerry.
On Monday, 26th July I visited Launceston again on behalf of the Guild to film a video walkthrough of the Exhibition. Keep a look out on QVMAG's social media sites.
If you haven't been to see the Exhibition yet, it's well worth the trip to Launceston.
Finally, to the approximately one hundred members and others who contributed to make this possible THANK YOU!