In 1935 nine women came together and founded our Guild. Forty years later the membership stood at 354 and today we are about 150 strong. In addition to our monthly meetings and programmes, the Guild has held sales, exhibitions, many workshops, hosted conferences including Convergence in 2002, built an excellent library, published a newsletter and contributed to many other endeavours. Most recently the Guild wove the samples for the Canadian Guild of Weavers Newsletter. Throughout all these years the stated purpose of the Guild has been “To promote, encourage and improve the art and craft of weaving and spinning.” Our longevity is due to our passion for what we do and the great friendships that have resulted from our many gatherings and activities. Over time many of our members have become interested in other aspects of textile arts but it is our interest in weaving and spinning that binds us together as a Guild.
It is to celebrate all we have achieved in the past 75 years and to look forward to the future that it has been decided to hold a symposium focusing on our core activities of weaving and spinning. No one else will promote and celebrate what we do, so we have to do the job ourselves and hopefully demonstrate to others that what we do is exciting. From May 17 to 25 we shall hold our symposium (we still need a catchy title) at Capilano University. We are very grateful to the textile programme for partnering with us and providing the space for workshops and lectures. The symposium week will end with the gala party opening our exhibition of “scarves” at the Seymour Art Gallery. As a prelude to the symposium we shall have a juried show at Crafthouse on Granville Island. When this is all over Vancouver will certainly know that we are a vibrant group within the textile community.
So watch this space for information about workshops and lectures as the details are confirmed. We begin this month with the calls for entry and submission to our two exhibitions. We encourage everyone to participate. We want this to be as inclusive as possible and challenge you to let your imaginations soar and to create your best and most exciting pieces to date.
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