I enjoy teaching tapestry weaving to a variety of learners (cats included) in a variety of settings: adult education courses, weaving guild workshops, and university students. A unique experience was teaching a textile arts programme to group of Inuit women in Pangnirtung, Nunavut.

As an artist/instructor, I can actively teach students in the classroom studio, but my tapestries can also take on an educational role while on display in an exhibition. Lectures, conference papers, and publications present other educational opportunities. This website with its images and text is another source of information: for example, follow the “you learning” link below and find out how I design and weave my tapestries.

I believe a solid understanding of technique is vital to progress as an artist working in one’s chosen medium. In the classroom I first lead my students through weaving a sampler which teaches them fundamental tapestry weaving skills. The students then apply these skills and knowledge to a small tapestry of their own design. I also believe it is important for students to situate themselves within a continuum of tapestry weaving which spans hundreds of years and the entire globe. Tapestry is a technique of weaving that is practised by cultures around the world: the cloth woven takes on many different appearances and functions: clothing, carpets, and fine art-craft.

I set out to communicate with my tapestries. Therefore, I believe they need to be outside my studio to fulfill my intentions. I want them to be in public spaces, both actual and virtual, to open up a dialogue between a viewer and my tapestries.

You can follow the community link and explore ways I have encouraged my students to understand this concept: that art communicates and in so doing it can create community.