Scotland’s Diaspora Tapestry – A project to involve communities around the world in the celebration of Scottish heritage and culture.
A tapestry, to be created by volunteers in communities around the globe. It will be assembled and displayed in Scotland as part of the 2014 Homecoming celebrations.
Scots have migrated all over the world and have often has a profound impact on the areas where they settled. This project will see 25 such communities documenting their Scottish connections on a series of embroidered panels.
Their combined stories will pay homage to the incredible determination and courage of Scots over the centuries.
The Scottish Diaspora Tapestry is the creation of Prestoungrange Arts Festival in Prestonpans with key support from Barons Courts of Prestoungrange & Dolphinstoun, hundreds of stitchers and Scotophiles globally, CreativeScotland, the Scottish Government’s Diaspora Division, EducationScotland, VisitScotland and EventScotland.
Their site can be seen here
Continua in silenzio ma alacremente il lavoro delle ricamatrici sui 4 pannelli giunti a Barga per completare la presenza della nostra comunità sullo Scotish diaspora Tapestry…
[dw-post-more level=”1″]Scots have migrated right across the globe. Whilst the Diaspora Tapestry has no wish to limit the future embroidered telling of their exciting stories, decisions had to be made for the first cohorts. Prestonpans two foundation Diaspora artworks with Gothenburg in Sweden and Barga in Italy are being followed by 25 other countries. It is planned that all 27 will be completed by Scotland’s 2014 Homecoming. Within each country just one or two communities have been selected but there is scope for many more to be added in the years ahead.
So as we move gradually through January and with February knocking on the door, its time to take a quick check once again on progress with the various tapestries being worked on in and around Barga.
The wool being woven into the tapestry does not handle well in warm, dry weather according to some of the women working on the project and so most of the work is being programmed to be done during the more moist cooler weather of the winter.
In December of last year we published an article showing the progress on the Barga Panel 4 (article here)
At that point the panel showing the most work was the Barga Panel 4 with 6 figures already completed.
Barga Panel 4: World War 2 and the Arandora Star– When Mussolini declared war against Britain on the 10th June 1940, men born in Italy were interned whilst their brothers served in the allied forces. Eighteen (number to be confirmed) Barghigiani men taken from internment on the Isle of Man, lost their lives when the ship they were on, the Arandora Star was torpedoed by a German U boat.
But since then, there has been a huge amount of delicate work being done on the Barga Panel 5
Barga Panel 5: Most Scottish Town in Italy– Some descendants of Barghigiani have returned to live in Barga and have opened restuarants, pubs and an icecream shop.Other non-Italian Scots have made Barga their home such as the painter John Bellany.
Barga attracts many Scottish visitors, often inspired by the beautiful surroundings to paint and take part in the various music festivals.
Known as the most Scottish town in Italy, 60% of Barga residents have family in Scotland and there is an annual fish and chip festival and a Scotland Week.
Famous Scots-Italians are the singer Paolo Nutini and the football player Johnny Moscardini.
Work on all of the panels has been held up by the fact that some of the coloured wool used specially for the project had already been used up and had to be imported once again from Scotland.
That wool has now arrived safely and so the work can continue as before.
Continua in silenzio ma alacremente il lavoro delle ricamatrici sui 4 pannelli giunti a Barga per completare la presenza della nostra comunità sullo Scotish diaspora Tapestry.
A lavoro ci sono Lucia Pieroni e Marta Lanciani, che si alternano sul ricamo che ricorda l’Arandora Star, Stefania Gugliesi e Roberta Carradini che stanno lavorando sul tema della “Most scottish town” e le signore del comitato paesano di Sommocolonia che riempiranno invece la trama e l’ordito di un pannello dedicato a Bruno sereni e all’emigrazione barghigiana.
A breve altre foto dei progressi dei tre ricami, che entro la primavera (o l’estate) saranno completati e spediti in scozia per essere uniti agli altri provenienti dai 25 paesi del mondo che partecipano al progetto.
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