I am very pleased with this week’s good news, that my entry ‘New From Old’ was juried in to SAQA’s Oceania regional exhibition “Opposites”, yay!!
I remember that on our return from USA in early 1994, the ‘art quilt’ was still relatively new, though, and most Australian quilt shows did not yet have an art quilt section in their prospectuses; Ozquilt Network was being established and is now very important on the textile art scene in both Australia and New Zealand; and I was on the committee the West Australian Quilt Association formed to organise that state’s first art quilt exhibition, The Razor’s Edge, 1995, wich is now the well established and highly important binennial Stitched and Bound .
I’m sure that there will be very exciting pieces in the collection, judging by the names of Australian and New Zealand artists on the list whose work I do know, but there are a couple I’ll have to look up. As I’ve been out of Aus for such a long time, it’s a bit hard to keep up with that and everything else in the art quilting world as a whole; but thank goodness for the SAQA network, of which I am a juried artist member, JAM.
The collection of 50cm x 70cm works will apear at the Australian Quilt Convention in Melbourne, Australia, from April 9th -12th. It will later travel to some other venues, and I’ll post that information as I receive it.
Congratulations on your acceptance. I recognise a number of names, including a couple from Western Australia (home!) Nice to learn that you were on the original committee for what is now Stitched and Bound, my entry for this year is in and I’m awaiting the result. S&B has organised short artist residencies as part of the exhibition as an extension of what is on offer and these are well visited. For the past 3 S&B at Midland Junction Arts Centre, I with 2 textile friends have been part of the program. It’s great fun, we encourage people to sit and stitch, with a cuppa on offer, and they do. Just a bit of news from the place that once was home for you.
Thanks for taking time to comment, Anne, with that insight into how S&B is these days. I hope you are juried in, and will keep an eye out for the list of exhibitors. It’s hard to believe that The Razor’s Edge / S&B began 30 years ago.