Marmalade Issue 5, 2017
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To mark the 40th Anniversary of the ATW in 2016 and<br />
enable this expertise to be passed on to a new generation of<br />
tapestry weavers, the organisation initiated a trainee weaver<br />
program that incorporated key elements of the original,<br />
refined through reference to the Associate Training Program<br />
developed by JamFactory. While tapestry weaving is the<br />
sole focus of the ATW and JamFactory offers training in<br />
four disciplines – ceramics, glass, furniture and metal design<br />
– the organisations have many similarities. Both provide<br />
opportunities for advanced skills development, mentorship<br />
by expert and experienced practitioners, and access to<br />
specialised knowledge and skills through collaborative work.<br />
Noting the benefits of JamFactory’s two-year Associate<br />
program and the opportunities for peer learning enabled<br />
by recruiting small groups rather than single trainees, the<br />
ATW decided to offer a two-year traineeship program to<br />
three trainee weavers. Funding was generously provided by<br />
donors contributing to the ATW Annual Appeal through the<br />
Tapestry Foundation of Australia and the Pratt Foundation.<br />
These funds were used to support a comprehensive<br />
program focused on developing each trainee’s technical and<br />
interpretive skills as well as their personal visual and woven<br />
language, together with their capacity to work collaboratively<br />
and learn the allied professional skills necessary to work as a<br />
production tapestry weaver.<br />
As opportunities to learn tapestry weaving in Australia are<br />
limited, especially with the contraction of specialist textile<br />
courses in higher education, applicants otherwise eminently<br />
suited for the trainee program could not be expected to<br />
have tapestry weaving skills. So a two-stage recruitment<br />
process was devised where the first stage focused on<br />
recruiting ‘highly motivated, enthusiastic visual arts or design<br />
graduates, with a ‘can-do’ attitude who wish to make a<br />
career in tapestry weaving’. Shortlisted applicants were then<br />
offered a five-day intensive workshop in tapestry weaving<br />
with Joy Smith, an experienced workshop weaver with her<br />
own professional practice, in order to gauge their enthusiasm<br />
and aptitude for the process. The workshop took place in the<br />
ATW premises in South Melbourne so participants could see<br />
the studio at work, engage in discussion with the weaving<br />
team and get a ‘feel’ for working collaboratively in such a<br />
specialised environment.<br />
The ATW was gratified and not a little surprised at the<br />
number and quality of applicants for the trainee positions.<br />
Eighty-one applications were received from Australasia and<br />
12 from applicants based in Europe, America and Asia. They<br />
came from a wide ranges of disciplines in the visual arts and<br />
design, most with a particular interest in textiles. Quite a few<br />
had postgraduate as well as undergraduate qualifications, an<br />
indication perhaps of the lack of employment opportunities<br />
for visual arts graduates, as well as the attraction of working<br />
in an organisation focused on making artworks like the<br />
ATW. Due to the generally high quality of the applications it<br />
was not easy to select 13 to attend the workshop and from<br />
these candidates, five for the final interview, but finally three<br />
trainees were selected to begin their traineeships in late 2016.<br />
Karlie Hawking, Leith Maguire and Sophie Moorhouse Morris<br />
took up their trainee positions with an already impressive<br />
range of creative making and drawing skills, experience as<br />
artists and museum professionals, and a passion for working<br />
with communities. Each brought with them huge enthusiasm<br />
for the medium of tapestry and collaborative work. They<br />
are (at the time of publication) 11 months into their two-year<br />
training program which provides technical and interpretive<br />
tapestry skill development and the experience of working<br />
collaboratively, as well as learning the skills required to<br />
conserve tapestries and cost tapestry production. They<br />
also participate in the daily life of the workshop; engage<br />
with artists in residence, attend specialist weaving classes,<br />
give presentations and visit art exhibitions. To give them<br />
an international perspective on the running of a tapestry<br />
workshop and to enhance their historical knowledge, in<br />
late <strong>2017</strong> the trainees will participate in a weaver exchange<br />
program with the Dovecot in Scotland and join Cresside<br />
Collette’s tour of historical tapestries in France.<br />
A key aspect of their education is provided by opportunities<br />
to observe the weaving team engaging with artists as they<br />
develop the interpretation of an artwork, to see how they<br />
set the parameters for each commission through weaving<br />
samples, deciding on the warp sett and approach, and how<br />
they monitor the progress of each tapestry to bring out<br />
artist’s vision, and finish on time and within budget. While<br />
the basic skills of tapestry weaving can be taught within a<br />
week, it can take years to develop the seemingly effortless<br />
fluency that characterises ATW tapestries and even longer to<br />
become a proficient production weaver able to create work<br />
of the highest quality within the constraints of time<br />
and money.<br />
When asked to nominate the most rewarding part of the<br />
training program to date the trainees unanimously identified<br />
the opportunity to learn from deeply experienced weavers<br />
and artists and to work collaboratively, especially with one<br />
another. As Hawking observed, ‘to be able to chat with<br />
Sophie and Leith and share so many ideas… we’re better<br />
as a team than as individuals’. Being able to spend every<br />
day exploring the creative possibilities of the medium has<br />
fast-tracked their weaving expertise. Moorhouse Morris<br />
noted with some surprise that ‘it’s amazing to be weaving all<br />
day, every day, it’s why we’ve progressed so quickly, being<br />
completely immersed in the process’. When reflecting on<br />
their first experience of sitting at the large loom weaving the<br />
hem of a commissioned work, Maguire commented, ‘It’s a<br />
different kind of experience to sit in a line weaving together,<br />
talking about what we’re doing. The physical and mental<br />
stimulus is something I’ve never experienced in the same way<br />
in my own practice… here we’re all working towards the same<br />
goal’. It’s this passion and sense of shared purpose that has<br />
underpinned the longevity of the ATW and the quality of the<br />
tapestries produced in its 40-year history. This new group<br />
of trainees is well positioned to take this ethos and expertise<br />
into the future.<br />
Previous page: Trainees in the workshop.<br />
Top right: Australian Tapestry Workshop, Melbourne.<br />
Right: Weave sample by Sophie Morris.<br />
All photos courtesy of the Australian Tapestry Workshop.<br />
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