Public forum, plus two workshops
A public forum, plus two workshops entitled Come Weave with Me ran concurrently as part of the Tasmanian Living Artist Week during August 2007. This event was open to the broader community and held at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery (QVMAG).
These two workshops were conducted by tutors Keren Ruki and Virginia Kaiser. The forum included Glenda King from QVMAG who presented a talk on baskets from a global perspective; Amanda Reynolds who spoke about the National Museums Program (NMA); Lindy Allen from Melbourne Museum who provided examples of exhibitions with fibre work; and both tutors who spoke on their experiences.
This very special program provided an opportunity for weavers to learn about baskets from other cultures and gain fresh ideas to create new contemporary basket forms. The program ran over two days with two speakers presenting in the mornings followed each afternoon by a practical workshop. Virginia demonstrated free-range weaving forms using dodder vine and Keren demonstrated her Maori weaving technique using flax leaves.
The total number of participants were 35 Aboriginal women including Patsy Cameron, Audrey Frost, Dulcie Greeno, Dawn Maher, Fiona Maher, Vicki maikutena Matson-Green, Verna Nichols, Claire Ogden, Wendy Pitchford, Nannette Shaw, Dyan Summers, Tracey Turnbull and her daughter and Vicki West.
Claire Ogden wrote of her experience:
‘inspirational, continues my hopes of weaving more baskets.’
Vicki maikutena Matson-Green added
‘This journey, is what dreams are made of.’
