welcome to 2009

This is the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ 2009 International Year of Natural Fibres With the objectives being to raise awareness and stimulate demand for natural fibres; promote the efficiency and sustainability of the natural fibres industries; encourage appropriate policy responses from governments to the problems faced by natural fibre industries; foster an effective and enduring international partnership among the various natural fibres industries.
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As 2009 begins textile and fibre activities across Canada and by Canadians are multiple varied; exhibitions still open, on tour and coming up have work crossing the country and boarders. The Textile Museum of Canada’s stunning exhibition Color & Light: Embroidery from India and Pakistan curated by eminent textile historian and author Dale Gluckman is currently at the Rubin Museum of Art 150 West 17th Street, in the heart of New York City’s Chelsea District, in Hendersonville North Carolina, Concordia University’s Barbara Lane and Joanna Berzowska along with Leslie Armstrong , Anke Fox [Armstrong and Fox Textiles] from NSCAD are part of Inspired Design : Jacquard and Entrepreneurial Textiles exhibition and conference at the Center for Craft Creativity and Design : a regional Intre-institutional Center of the University of North Carolina.

Joanna Berzowska, Krakow, 2003, Jacquard woven textile. Cotton with conductive yarns, thermochormatic inks, custom control electronics.

McMaster University Textile scholar Angela Sheng, is principal curator of “Writing with Thread Traditional Textiles of Southwest Chinese Minorities” an exhibition opening January 30 at the Chazen Museum of Art in Madison, Wisconsin and traveling to the Museum of International Folk Art, in Santa Fe New Mexico. In April Telos Textile Art Book publisher is launching there latest “Textile Arts of the World: Canada” series, presenting a stable of internationally know Canadian Textile and fibre Arts and Craft practitioners with an exhibition and book launch at the Montreal Centre For Contemporary Textiles / Le Centre des Textiles Contemporains de Montréal.

--------------------------- Judy Chicago The Fall 1993, Modified Aubusson Tapestry 190 x 550 cm. Woven by Audrey Cowan. Collection: Audrey & Robert Cowan: A promised gift to the Museum of Art and Design. Photo: Donald Woodman

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In February the TMC will be presenting When Women Rule the World: Judy Chicago in Thread, curated by: Allyson Mitchell this exhibition will travel to the Art Gallery of Calgary in October. Mitchell has also brought together a group of younger artist in She Will Always Be Younger Than Us, artists whose work counts among its influences the practice of Judy Chicago. Orly Cogan, Wednesday Lupiknicw, Cat Mazza, Gillian Strong and Ginger Brooks Takahashi are artists whose work is explicitly engaged with feminist politics through the use of textile, thread and fibre. Their work ranges from video to embroidery, performance and sculpture with the political intention to ignite politics and question culture.

Orly Cogan Size Matters 2007, vintage fabric, stitching 117 x 109 cm. Photo: courtesy the artist

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This just a sampling of what is happening.


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Other events along with calls for exhibition and conference submissions are on numerous sites all over the web. Many are specif to textile arts and crafts practice and history, there aren't many and are duplicated over many sites and blogs. There is no centralized listings site and finding them all is a very labour intensive past [if sitting at a key board could be called labour rather then an obsessive compulsive disorder]. There are a few deadlines for submissions i would like to remind you just in case you hadn't found them on your own:
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Quilt Saskatchewan 2009 May 25 - 30, 2009 a national survey show
http://www.canadianquilter.com/events/index_events_quiltcanada2009.htm
Deadline January 23, 2009 (Receive) Open to: All Canadian residents, citizens and CQA/ACC individual members
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Wearable Art Awards http://www.wearableartawards.com/
Deadline for Submissions: 5pm, March 6, 2009
Where: Port Moody Arts Centre
When: May 14 to June 28, 2009
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Unity & Diversity
A Juried National Exhibition of Works by Canada’s Craft Community at the
Canadian Pavilion, Cheongju International Craft Biennale organized by the Canadian Craft Federation

http://www.canadiancraftsfederation.ca/korea/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=57&Itemid=66
Deadline: Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 – 5pm EST
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World of Threads Festival: COMMON THREAD EXHIBITION

http://www.worldofthreadsfestival.com/submissions.html

DEADLINE: 4.00 p.m. on Tuesday, 31st March, 2009

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