Nancy Bowman describes the Guild's outreach activities and their impact on the Kingston community.

Nancy Bowman describes the Guild's outreach activities and their impact on the Kingston community.

June 21, 2021

© Kingston Handloom Weavers and Spinners

Shaelagh Cull

Nancy Bowman

Tett Centre for Creativity and Learning

We need to respond to the changing needs of the community of Kingston, we also need to respond to just the changing world around us. And in my time, sort of on the Board, and as a member of the Tett tenant group that meets regularly, we're really working to, as one of them said, you know, when we help each other, we all do better. So, you know, finding out what similarities, doing some cross some integrated demonstrations together. So that's why I really see that we will be able to reach out to the community of Kingston as an integrated group, I mean, we do that already, as a Guild, things like the Sheepdog Trials, we also, the City calls on us to help with some of the heritage demonstrations. So First Capital Day, which is usually early in June, and that is organized by the city for the schools to come and see what life was like at the time when Kingston was the capital of Upper Canada. And for those demonstrations, we would dress in period costumes, and try and demonstrate what the role of children would have been, you know. I always say to them, you know, there was no TV, they didn't have electricity, so after dinner, you sat by the fire, and your job was to card the wool and get it ready for whoever was spinning. So for them to experience that, to hear a little bit about the stories about how that works. We also do demonstrations for Bellevue House. So we do some demonstrations that are heritage related. But then we also do other demonstrations, or we're out in the community. We've had requests from schools, elementary and secondary schools, Our studio is a little bit small for us to have a large group of students in, so we have sometimes been able to go out to schools, it's hard to take a lot of equipment with us and give them that experience. We've had members requested to do lectures for the academic studies at Queen's [University]. And I'd really like to explore a little bit more about how we can do that more proactively. We participate in the Tett summer camp. So again, that's where all of the organization's kind of offer a different activity that children can, they're eight to 8 to 12, 8 to 13, that they can participate in. And then the parents were so keen, they said, 'Well, I want to do that.' So I know the Tett organized an adult retreat, we haven't been able to deliver it yet. But there's where we are thinking, you know, how we give people a taste of the fiber arts. And then if they want to learn more formally and more in depth, we can offer further, there is an impact there. So a couple of examples: so there was somebody who came to join the guild last summer to learn to spin and came out her son, who was I know, six or seven at the time, had spent over an hour with me, in the tent at the Sheepdog Trialsl. He was fascinated, I was filling the blending board, then he helped me do some spindle spinning. And he was so fascinated with all of that, that he and she got interested in fiber arts and she wanted to learn to spin. It's hard to know, but there we got a membership out of that, but also that child has an affinity for fiber arts. He's been with us to some of our eco study groups when we've gone to the alpaca farm when we've gone foraging for materials to do plant dyeing. So how do you measure that? We are resource because we're at the Tett, and I think, you know, we benefit a lot from being at the Tett, we certainly appreciate the support of the staff of the Tett and that sort of position within the City, so that people can find us. So over the last couple of years, there's four students in their final year of engineering and they have a project to help a community in Burkina Faso, improve looms. Burkina Faso, this is a community that can grow their own cotton but has always sold it out to be spun and then they buy the fabric back. And the leaders in the community wanted to be able to do that within their own community. And so they have these very rustic looms that are very heavy, they're made out of metal like from automobile parts, they're tensioned with rocks. The young women who are weaving on them are developing a lot of musculoskeletal problems. And so this is the genesis of the project. Fourth year engineering students are supposed to help and but they've been coming to us to understand how looms work. What are the different parts of a loom to watch us how we move and it's been fascinating. I mean, we do we do sort of some formal outreach where you know, the community events that we're expected to do. Sometimes it's more somebody just asks, they're curious, and we see what we can offer for them. So it's being flexible and being open to their curiosity. You know, when people call and ask about the Guild or they're having a tour, I try and find out what they're curious about. I think it all goes back to that. What are you curious about and we'll find a way to help you explore that. We may not be the expert in that, but we'll help you explore that.