Marmalade Issue 5, 2017

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