Community Quilt

Photo Jamie Cruickshank

This large community quilt, 16'high x 6'wide, is a project which Moon Rain Centre directed for the Canadian Tulip Festival.

The project was designed and directed by Gabby Ewen, who is project co-ordinator for Moon Rain Centre. Textile artists, Owen Tuf, Phyllis Wedding, Jocelyne Ladouceur, Andie Haltrich and Thoma Ewen, artistic director of Moon Rain Centre, all assisted on the quilt project.

Community participants and visitors to the Canadian Tulip Festival wrote messages of peace and friendship onto ribbons that were appliqued to make the tulip flower, stem and leaves. One message I found significant is, "peace is not a solo activity". The signatures of participants are on the green rectangles that make the border. This is part of Moon Rain Centre's large "Vision Weave Project".  www.visionweaveproject.blogspot.com

The Canadian Tulip Festival, now in it's 59th year, commemorates Holland's gift of tulip bulbs as thanks for Canada's hospitality to the Dutch Royal Family during the Second World War.

The Quilt was made on site at the festival in Major's Hill Park in Ottawa in

May 2011.
It has now been delivered to the Canadian Tulip Festival offices in Ottawa.

The Kaleidoscope Community Quilt

The Kaleidoscope Community Quilt on stage at closing ceremonies

Six artists from Moon Rain Centre participated in the Kaleidoscope Community Quilt Project on-site at the Tulip Festival: Gabby Ewen, owen tuf, Phyllis Wedding, Andie Haltrich, Jocelyne Ladouceur and Thoma Ewen.This picture was taken on stage at the Tulip Festival during the closing ceremonies on May 23. Shown are the quilt and the director of the project Gabby Ewen. She is currently working on the finishing touches of this large quilt.

Act Creatively and Collectively

By mirroring back to the community its visions and goals, the Vision Weave project seeks to strengthen the belief that we can think and act creatively and collectively for the well being of our community and the Earth.

Photograph Joanne de Nobriga

 You are invitated to express your own vision, hope or message for the future of your community and for the Earth in writing on The Vision Weave Project blog. Please use the comment box below or send your message to visionweaveproject@gmail.com

The Vision Weave Project

Vision Weave is an interactive community arts project that integrates fibre arts, text messages and community visioning in the creation of woven public art.

In Vision Weave, each community participant is given a strip of fabric on which they write their message or vision for a peaceful future and then interweave it into a collective tapestry.

.

Who is directing the project?

Thoma Ewen is one of the leading textile artists in Canada today. Her community tapestry project entitled, "Invocation of Peace" was referred to as an "extraordinary project of lasting impact in the community" by the Ontario Arts Council. Ewen has exhibited her work at the International Fibre Arts Symposium at the Central Museum of Textiles in Lodz, Poland, at Museo Ixchel in Guatemala, at Museo de Arte Moderno in Venezuela, and in Canada, England, France, and the USA. Her commissions include works for the Boyne River Ecology Centre, the Ministere de la Culture et des Communications du Quebec, and for the City of Ottawa. Ewen has directed community tapestry projects in Canada and Europe, and has facilitated weaving workshops with schools, with indigenous weavers in Central America and with northern Canadian communities. Ewen’s open and sharing approach to empowering creativity has allowed her to communicate the beauty and mystery of weave to intergenerational and intercultural collaborators.

info@moonrain.ca   http://www.moonrain.ca/  visionweaveproject@gmail.com

Le projet « Tissage visionnaire »

Le tissage visionnaire est un projet d’art communautaire interactif qui intègre les arts textiles, des messages textes et une approche

communautaire dans la création d’un art public.

Dans un tissage visionnaire, chaque participant reçoit une bandelette de tissu sur laquelle on écrit un message destiné à la communauté et à la Terre. Le message est ensuite entrelacé dans le tissage collectif.

Qui mène le projet ?

L’artiste Thoma Ewen est une chef de file dans le domaine des arts textiles au Canada. Son projet « Invocation de la paix » est désigné comme «…un projet extraordinaire d’un impact durable dans la communauté. »

Thoma Ewen a exposé ses œuvres à la Biennale internationale des arts textiles à Lodz en Pologne, au Musée Ixchel au Guatémala, et au Musée d’art moderne du Vénézuela. Le Boyne River Ecology Centre, la Ville d’Ottawa et le ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec figurent parmi les institutions qui ont commandé des œuvres de Thoma Ewen. L’artiste organise aussi des ateliers de tissage dans les écoles, ainsi qu’avec des tisserands indigènes d’Amérique centrale et les communautés autochtones du Québec. Son approche ouverte et généreuse inspire la confiance et la créativité. Ses qualités lui ont permis de rendre accessible la beauté et le mystère du tissage à un public de tous âges.

http://www.moonrain.ca/     info@moonrain.ca      visionweaveproject@gmail.com

Facilitating a Community Visioning Experience

Here are some of the visions and messages written by community members of all ages and cultures that are interwoven into the Vision Weave hangings commissioned by the City of Ottawa for the Albion-Heatherington Recreation Centre. The installed woven banners have become a visual icon of hope, inspiration, pride and community solidarity.

　
The text messages and visions are compiled into a resource document that can be used for all future planning and goal setting within the community

.Espoir et paix sur la terre


I hope for the end of world poverty


Believe in Community….believe in yourself….Believe in others…Have hope for the future!


Our children are our future….

I wish for world peace


I wish for a community where all ages, colours & cultures live side by side in Peace and Harmony


Ce n’est pas ce qui nous arrive qui importe mais ce que nous en faisons

A kind world


Don’t pollute planète Earth


An end to descrimination


Peace in each heart


The community rising as one to offer each other kindness generosity, handshakes and smiles


Utz 'lpetiq' kikoteursl Chawe! (Mayan) Bienvenida la alegri de todos! (Welcome to happiness!)


La hevle unda con el uno el otro. Que prospera la felizidad de todos de la communidad


An end to war


Mas sonrisas! (more smiles)


Be passionate about ideas. Imagine. Never be afraid of the person looking back at you in the mirror


I wish for peace, health and happiness for all children everywhere

Peace on Earth

The world is beautiful -protect it
community.

Photographs from The Vision Weave Project

Community Participation Albion-Heatherington Recreation Centre
July 2010

Photograph Roger Lalonde

Community Participation Albion-Heatherington Recreation Centre
July 2010

Photograph Roger Lalonde

Nick Zeis, community centre director, City of Ottawa,

Albion-Heatherington Recreation Centre, weaving on the Vision Weave Project, July 2010

Photograph Roger Lalonde

Weaving at the Albion-Heatherington Recreation Centre

July 2010

Photograph Roger Lalonde

Vision Weave Installed, City of Ottawa's Albion-Heatherington Recreation Centre

August 2010

Photograph Caleb Abbott

Bibliotheque de Lyon, France

2008

Photograph Densie Coker

Museum of Civilization Gatineau Quebec
Earth Day
Weave a Vision for the Earth Project
2009

Photograph Francoise Chartrand

Museum of Civilization Gatineau Quebec
Earth Day
Weave a Vision for the Earth Project
2009

Photograph Francoise Chartrand

The Vision Weave Project at General Vanier Elementary School, Montreal

2011

Photograph Moon Rain

Vision Circle Project Ayer's Cliff Elementary School

2010

Photograph Moon Rain

Detail of the ribbons in the Vision Circle project

Photograph Moon Rain

The Vision Circle Project

Onslow Elementary School, Quyon Quebec
2010

Photograph Moon Rain