Many years and community textile projects further down the line, I feel that I have time and again witnessed the socially therapeutic, restorative and of course, creative benefits for many of the people participating. I never cease to marvel at how rag rugging as a medium, probably much like quilting, provides such a great foundation for peoples’ increasing openness and dialogue with each other.
So, in May 2011, I am going to be in Jerusalem running workshops with both Arab and Israeli patients, (children up to the age of 18,) their families, and clinic staff, to create (and hopefully complete!) a textile wallhanging, entitled “EVERYONE SMILES IN THE SAME LANGUAGE”, which will ultimately enhance the education room of the paediatric DVI Dental Clinic there.
Since this will be a large scale piece of work, I am, over the coming months, also going to be working on the piece, here in the U.K. and running a programme of workshops with a range of schools and community groups, with an appropriate interest and emphasis upon inter-faith focus, and the DVI’s aims.
As with a former large-scale project I ran, “MATS FOR THE MILLENNIUM”, numerous celebrities have been contacted, asking them for donations of cast-off clothing to incorporate into the work. In this case, as before, this aspect creates an exciting additional dimension to the recycling and documentation aspect of the project; but also, hopefully, very much serves to benefit the Clinic by raising its profile and increasing its ability for significant fundraising to continue its vital and unique work.
VIDEO: (you can play this in a full screen by pressing the little symbol (with 4 arrows), at the bottom right corner next to the word ‘vimeo’)
link to DVI clinic (back arrow to return to this blog page)