Wednesday 21 May 2014

Vanity

I've just written a blog post about my recent trip to the Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh, and whilst editing my photo, I came across ones I took in Birmingham a month ago when I went to see Grayson Perry's tapestries, The Vanity of Small Differences at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

I was very impressed with the museum itself, but nothing could prepare me for the tapestries. They are very engaging works, with multiple artistic and cultural references, and striking use of text and narrative. Having them at Croome is going to be quite something.

Dovecot Studios

It’s been a while since I blogged as things have been extremely busy, and blogging has felt like a luxury I couldn’t afford.

I visited Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh on Friday morning, meeting with director David Weir, general manager Sandra Crow, master weaver Naomi Roberson and other weavers working on different pieces. It was a fascinating morning.

As well as having beautiful interior spaces, the Studios have an ethos very akin to our approach at Croome – one of developing work through collaborations and conversations. They also have a chequered history, much like Croome, and had a radical overhaul in the late 1990s.


We talked at length about how we might collaborate on a tapestry programme at Croome, and there are a number of possibilities of what we might do and how we might go about it. Needless to say, it would be a big project (as the Croome tapestry room deserves), with the tangible outcome of a Croome tapestry in one form or another. Details will follow as things unfold…