Diocesan News19 Jul 13

The Big Weave Exhibition Opens

Seven tapestries created during The Big Weave project at St Augustine’s, on Derry / Londonderry’s city walls will be on public exhibition in the city over the next four weeks. They can be viewed at in The Gallery at The Playhouse, Artillery Street in Derry / Londonderry.

For three weeks in June people of the city, from all over the world and from all walks of life came together to help with the creation of a legacy. Over 8000 attended The Big Weave tapestry project, at St Augustine’s Church on Derry’s Walls, to take part in the church’s main project for City of Culture 2013. Some came to weave, some to watch. All left spellbound and in awe.

The Revd Pat Storey, Rector of St Augustine’s, summed up the impact of the project, ‘The Big Weave far exceeded our expectations. To have so many people from all the different parts of our city, as well as tourists from all corners of the world, take part was deeply moving.’

She continued, ‘It illustrated to us the deep threads that join us together. The legacy is beyond the beautiful finished weaves, but even more so in the relationships that have been created or renewed. That seems the most fitting celebration of the UK City of Culture Year.’

The seven tapestries have been made ready for public exhibition. This will be the only chance to see the beautiful, finished tapestries displayed together. At the end of the exhibition six of them will be presented to organisations in the city as gifts from St Augustine’s and one will remain in St Augustine’s.

A popular feature of the project was THE WEAVE TREE where those taking part were asked to write their thoughts and hopes on tags and hang them on a magnolia tree outside the church.

These thought tags, along with a photographic documentary of the weaving process, will also be on display at The Playhouse.

St Augustine’s would like to thank The Playhouse for facilitating the exhibition, McPherson Photography for the photographs and The Loughs Agency for providing the props.

The Big Weave Exhibition will run from 23 July to 17 August from 10am to 4pm, Monday to Friday.