Dear Stitcher -
I wanted to give you an update on the Jacket Tour and a few other timely items.
Tricia
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Jacket Tour Planning Almost Complete Reservations taken starting on January 13th
As you can imagine, putting together a tour of this magnitude is a momentous effort. I am happy to have Susan Albury of Hanging by a Thread and Colleen at Virgin Vacations to help with the task. We have been busily ensuring that each of our tour stops will have the proper access to the embroideries which we want to see. Many of the venues are under construction or closed at the moment (such as Museum of London and Platt Hall) and so it takes a bit of extra work to make sure we see what we want. I recently reminded Colleen that we aren't a group of 'interested generalists' - we ar e a group of extreme experts! A whole bus load in fact. That has meant being realistic about the number of stops every day for a group of this size so we can make sure that smaller numbers of people can see the embroideries close up instead of from afar for a few minutes. So we have been tweaking the logistics to make sure everyone has something interesting to see/do while waiting for their turn. This means that at some venues we have spent allot of time coordinating with the curators to know what will be on display in the galleries during that time frame so that everyone will have fantastic things to do while waiting their turn. I also added in extra time at our gold thread maker. Don't tell me that you all won't shop there! I am asking for them to staff up for those hours so we can process the little purchases and get you all back on the bus in time. I know from experience that their selection blows the mind and you will agonize over the choices. I am thrilled to let you know that we have put together
arrangements to see over a dozen jackets - that is two-thirds of the existing embroidered jackets!
We will see pieces in the V&A, Museum of London, Bath, Platt
Hall, and Maidstone. An impressive achievement as only one is
currently on view! We have also split the tour into a base tour of England visiting 'jacket significant sites' and one that travels to Scotland to see the pieces at the Burrell collection - can't forget their lovely jacket. So you can choose either or both depending on what fits your vacation time and wallet. I can't wait to publish the final itinerary in a couple of days. We have some nice
surprises for you in store - it has taken allot of extra work, but we
are gaining access to items not normally seen. Even after the info is published this week, we will have a few more things to add that won't be 'ready-for-primetime' until after the first of the year. Watch this page for the downloadable brochure |
Winterthur to Display Plimoth Jacket Fundraising OpportunityPlimoth Plantation and Winterthur are pleased to announce that the finished Plimoth Embroidered Jacket will be on display in the public galleries in the Spring of 2010. The jacket will have its own little corner from Spring 2010-Fall 2011 and will join a much larger exhibition at Winterthur at that point. Once finished being displayed at Winterthur, the Jacket will travel back to Plimoth for the long-waited exhibition there.
Mounting any sort of exhibition or display during these economic times is difficult. Our display plans for the jacket include a small flat screen monitor that would allow slides, photos and video about the jacket project to be displayed next to the jacket. The inclusion of such a display would greatly enhance Winterthur's ability to tell the deep and complex story involved in the making of the piece. Unfortunately, the video displays at Winterthur are already spoken for during the early days of the jacket's arrival to Winterthur, therefore Thistle Threads invites you all to join with us in raising money to purchase such a screen to enhance the educational mission of the project.
A special fund has been set up at Winterthur for direct donations to exhibiting the Jacket. During the last days of 2009, any donations to the fund will be matched by Thistle Threads up to $3000 total. During the course of the project we found that together we could take those small donations of $5-$25 and make something special. I hope you will join the effort again. Donate to Winterthur's Exhibit of the Plimoth Jacket |
I am looking forward to resuming the Needlework NIbbles in January - get your stitching fingers ready! Tricia Wilson Nguyen
Thistle Threads
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