21st June 2020
Building Community through Textile Art during COVID-19
Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre are delighted to announce the launch of a new exhibition, the Triax Arpillera Dolls Exhibition. Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre, in partnership with Conflict Textiles and the Bogside and Brandywell Initiative’s Peace Walls Programme (funded by International Fund for Ireland), have worked together over the past 2 months to engage a group of women from the Triax area Derry/Londondery in a cross community textile arts project that explores human rights violations and our response to them.
“Embracing Human Rights; Conflict Textiles Journey” exhibition. Thanks to the innovation and dedication of the curator Roberta Bacic and the Roe Valley Arts and Cultural team>span class="Body_0020A__Char">, the exhibition and associated activities were moved online to ensure that everyone could still engage with the arpilleras.
Each woman connected to one piece from the original exhibition that inspired her and created an associated doll. The women used material that they could find in their household during the lockdown period to hand sew their own unique doll. Each of the women expressed a message about the doll they created, many of these reflect upon personal experience and are incredibly moving to read.
Esther Alleyne, Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Facilities Officer comments: “This exhibition is incredibly beautiful and moving, it is wonderful to see how it has developed over the past months and how the women from the Triax area have engaged so meaningfully in the work.”
It is hoped that this exhibition is the first step in their textiles journey. The next is intended to be the creation of their own Derry-Londonderry themed arpillera.
If you have a community group that you work with, or are a part of, that would like to engage in an art project in partnership with Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre, or it’s sister centre in Portstewart, Flowerfeild Arts Centre, please contact esther.alleyne@causewaycoastandglens.gov.uk
To view the full exhibition just click the link below.
