The Australian Tapestry Workshop (formerly known as the Victorian Tapestry Workshop) is a

not-for-profit organisation A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

that employs weavers to create

tapestry Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads may ...

pieces and promotes tapestry creation though collaboration with contemporary artists. Founding director of the workshop, Sue Walker, described role of the workshop to be "the fostering of artistic collaboration rather than the development of a subservient technical skill".

History

Established in 1976 as the Victorian Tapestry Workshop, the Australian Tapestry Workshop was the product of years of research and planning by Lady Joyce Delacombe and

Dame Elisabeth Murdoch Dame Elisabeth Joy Murdoch, Lady Murdoch (née Greene; 8 February 1909 – 5 December 2012), also known as Elisabeth, Lady Murdoch, was an Australian philanthropist and matriarch of the Murdoch family. She was the widow of Australian medi ...

supported by Premier and self-appointed Minister for the Arts

Rupert Hamer Sir Rupert James Hamer, (29 July 1916 – 23 March 2004), generally known until he was knighted in 1982 as Dick Hamer, was an Australian Liberal Party politician who served as the 39th Premier of Victoria from 1972 to 1981. Early years Hamer ...

. The two women formed a committee to explore the feasibility of the workshop in 1974 beginning with a study of the local art scene and including research into the methods employed by overseas tapestry workshops. It was agreed that if such a place were to exist in Australia it would have to engage weaver's artistic as well as their technical abilities. The workshop was modelled on the Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh, Scotland, where artists and weavers collaborated to create tapestries. State funding was secured by June 1975 and the workshop was opened on 24 February 1976.

Name change

The name of the Victorian Tapestry Workshop was changed to the Australian Tapestry Workshop in 2010.

About

The Australian Tapestry Workshop employs weavers to create unique tapestry pieces using the traditional Gobelin technique of tapestry weaving. It has collaborated with over 300 artists since its conception and created over 400 tapestries.

The building

The Australian Tapestry Workshop building in

South Melbourne, Victoria South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. South Melbourne recorded a population of 11,548 at t ...

was constructed in 1885 by architect Thomas James Crouch of

Crouch and Wilson Crouch and Wilson was an architectural practice based in Melbourne, Australia in the late nineteenth century. The partnership, between Tasmanian-born Thomas Crouch and recently arrived Londoner Ralph Wilson, commenced in 1857 in Elizabeth Street ...

, and updated by Peter Carmichael in 1976 and Peter Williams in 1999. It is a fine example of a Victorian Free Gothic style building and is included in the now defunct

Register of the National Estate The Register of the National Estate was a heritage register that listed natural and cultural heritage places in Australia that was closed in 2007. Phasing out began in 2003, when the Australian National Heritage List and the Commonwealth Heri ...

. The building originally served as drapery establishment ''Harcourt and Parry Emporium'' and the ''Patross Knitting Mills'', the title of which is still painted on the façade.

Significant projects

In 1988 the Australian Tapestry Workshop worked with

Arthur Boyd Arthur Merric Bloomfield Boyd (24 July 1920 – 24 April 1999) was a leading Australian painter of the middle to late 20th century. Boyd's work ranges from impressionist renderings of Australian landscape to starkly expressionist figuration, ...

to create a 9.18 x 19.9 m tapestry for the Reception Hall of Parliament House in Canberra. It is currently the second largest tapestry in the world. Some other notable collaborations between artists and the Australian Tapestry Workshop include the translation of works by John Coburn,

Jon Cattapan Jon Cattapan (born 1956) is an Australian visual artist best known for his abstract oil paintings of cityscapes, his service as the 63rd Australian war artist and his work as a professor of visual art at the University of Melbourne in the Facu ...

, and

John Olsen John Wayne Olsen, AO (born 7 June 1945) is a former Australian politician, diplomat and football commissioner. He was Premier of South Australia between 28 November 1996 and 22 October 2001. He is now President of the Federal Liberal Party, C ...

into tapestry.

References

External links

Australian Tapestry Workshop
- official site Australian artisans Non-profit organisations based in Victoria (Australia) Tapestry artists Textile arts of Australia Textile arts organizations