Japanese Textile Star at MVTM

The Mississippi Valley Textile Museum (MVTM) is thrilled to be hosting the exhibition “Reiko Sudo + NUNO, Textiles from Japan,” curated by Alan Elder of the Canadian Museum of History. The exhibition runs from 11 July to 22 November with an artist’s talk and opening remarks at the Old Almonte Town Hall, hosted by the Town of Mississippi Mills on Thursday 10 July at 5 pm, followed by an opening reception at the Museum from 6 to 8 pm.

Textiles created by the NUNO Corporation, led by co-founder and head designer Reiko Sudo, have been shown worldwide and are used by leading fashion designers and architects. They are in collections in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. While incorporating products from organic cotton to metals and feathers and using cutting-edge technology, NUNO’s fabrics are strongly rooted in Japanese textile tradition.

The installation of the exhibition takes the architecture of the Norah Rosamond Hughes Gallery as its starting point. An array of amazing fabrics will “dress” the gallery’s many columns. This wonderful historic building where workers produced award-winning textiles for generations is the perfect showplace for astonishing fabrics that range from “Snowy Branches” to “Scrapyard.” You won’t want to miss this rare opportunity to enjoy the work of this international textile star!

For information call the Museum at 613-256-3754. The Mississippi Valley Textile Museum is located at 3 Rosamond St. E. in Almonte.

Twist the weekend away

 
TWIST is a unique fibre festival in Québec, Canada, bringing together the most important players in the field.TWIST is an annual event that serves as a showcase of the fibre world and is intended for the general public, enthusiasts, fibre producers, fleece animal breeders, transformers, artists, artisans, professionals and semiprofessionals.


TWIST is a 2-day event featuring dozens of workshops, activities, a textile art exhibit with a modern twist and over 80 exhibitors from all trades of the fibre industry.

Check out the link below

 http://www.festivaltwist.org/en/

“Textile Nature – Canada” Workshop at the Textile Museum

You won’t want to miss a chance to make a nature-themed piece of fabric art in this exciting workshop led by Canadian born, UK based textile artist, author and tutor Anne Kelly. This not just a chance to learn the textile-collage techniques that Anne uses in her work, but a chance to collaborate on a work in progress.
Anne is co-author of “Connected Cloth” (published by Batsford/Anova 2013). She is currently producing a new collaborative artwork to be exhibited in the summer of 2014, and you can participate! Choose from either flora or fauna, and bring pictures of your favourite plants or animals, scraps of fabric and lace/ribbons. You may also bring a sewing machine and threads for stitching. Your completed work may be photographed and contribute to a larger group piece, all to raise funds for Nature Canada and the RSPB in the UK, the country's largest nature conservation charity. The workshop will be held at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum on 12 April 2014, from 1 to 4pm. The cost is $45.  Please contact Anne directly at acegkelly@hotmail.com to reserve a place and to arrange payment.

You and a guest are cordially invited to the opening of the exhibit titled 'A Collaboration.' Curator Michael Rikley-Lancaster presented the artists with a woven art challenge. Come and see how each artist has responded. Official exhibit opening is Saturday April 5, 2014 from 2 pm to 4 pm.

Look forward to seeing you at the museum,

MVTM’s Popular “Soup for Thought” Is Back and Better!

On Saturday, March 22, the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum will again be holding its Soup for Thought lunch. This fundraiser, which features fabulous soups by local chefs served in soup bowls that patrons choose and take home, has been enormously popular and this year’s version should be even more fun.
Potter Chandler Swain of “The General” fine craft, art and design gallery will be joining members of the Almonte Potter’s Guild to create and donate soup bowls that are one-of-a-kind masterworks. Operated by Chandler Swain and Richard Skrobecki, The General is a recent addition to Almonte’s Mill Street and features work by over 120 artists from Ontario and Quebec. The gallery shows ceramics, furniture, jewellery, metalwork, sculpture, mixed media and more.
New chefs this year include Dustin Pettes from Ballygiblins Restaurant and Pub in Carleton Place, Mike Curry from J. R.’s Family Restaurant, and Charlene Santry from the Mill Street Crépe Company. Back again are Julie and Jason Moffat from Foodies Fine Foods, Richard Kletnieks from the Heirloom Café Bistro, Sally Parsons from Palms … Coffee Shop, Steve Falsetto from Café Postino, and Natalie Houston of Robin’s Nest Tea Room.
To ensure the comfortable accommodation of all our guests, there will be two sittings this year. The first will run from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., the second from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. Rest assured the variety of bowls available will be the same at both!! Tickets are $20 and children under 12 are free. Tickets will indicate the sitting and are available in advanced at the museum and at Bob the Baker.
On the same afternoon drop by the Almonte Branch of the Mississippi Mills Public Library for their first Novel Cakes Contest.
Celebrate books and reading in a novel way.  Bake and decorate a cake representing a favourite scene, character, book cover, or author—anything book related! Bring your cake to the Almonte Branch of the Mississippi Mills Public Library the morning of March 22 starting at 9:30 a.m. Then browse our collection of novel cakes and vote for your favourite by purchasing tickets to place beside the cake(s) you'd like to see win the People's Choice Book Award . Judging by Baker Bob and Mill Street Books will be from 2 to 4 p.m. Prizes will be awarded!  Willing bakers will donate their cakes for a silent auction.

Follow the library on Facebook or Twitter for more details, or call Pam 613 256-1037. Sponsored by the Elizabeth Kelly Library Foundation Inc.
Follow the museum on Facebook or Twitter for more details, or call Matthew 613-256-3754. 

Michael Rikley-Lancaster

Executive Director / Curator

Mississippi Valley Textile Museum

National Historic Site

613-256-3754

curator@mvtm.ca

www.mvtm.ca

Can you do the twist?

http://www.festivaltwist.org/en

Join the  "twist" in August.. Click onto the website above and read all about it!

MVTM Presents Lecture on Textile Treasures of Armenian Churches

Like many collections, the Armenian Orthodox Church treasuries in Istanbul contain objects that were never meant to be displayed in a museum, appear in a book or be part of a scholarly lecture. Their primary purpose was to serve, honor, and glorify God. Acquired over many centuries, such objects were more than thread, cloth, metal, stone, and wood and were definitely more than complicated composition and elaborate iconography. They were a physical testament to religious belief that symbolized the intense spiritual conviction of the lay community.

On Wednesday, March 19, Ron Marchese, Professor Emeritus, University of Minnesota, Duluth, will discuss these treasures in the lecture Art and Faith: Armenian Church Collections of Constantinople. Professor Marchese was co-director of the excavations at Plataiai in Greece from 1999-2009, which were carried out by the Austrian Institute of Archaeology and the University of Minnesota-Cambridge University-University of Vienna-Thebes Archaeological Museum. He has also worked on archaeological surveys in Russia and Turkey and excavated in Israel and Turkey. Author of numerous books and articles, he is the recipient of awards for two recent books on textiles and relics from Armenian Orthodox churches in Istanbul.

Admission to this event is by donation. The lecture will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the Museum’s Learning Center. For more information call the Museum at 613 256-3754 x6 or info@mvtm.ca. The Mississippi Valley Textile Museum is located at 3 Rosamond St. E. in Almonte.

L to R.: Marine Vardanyan, Dr. Ronald Marchese, Vartush Mesropyan,   and Konrad Siekierski.

Photo: Barlow Der Mugrdechian
http://armenianstudies.csufresno.edu/hye_sharzhoom/vol34/march%202013/3_marcheseart.html