Commonwealth
Tapestry
A PROJECT BY THE MILLENNIUM TAPESTRY COMPANY FOR THE COMMONWEALTH
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Commonwealth |
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Tapestry |
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A PROJECT BY THE MILLENNIUM TAPESTRY COMPANY FOR THE COMMONWEALTH |
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Click here to see
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The Commonwealth Tapestry
Working on the tapestry has given children insights into the values of the Commonwealth and has informed them about many individual countries; for example, individual schools linked work on the tapestry with learning about India and Bangladesh. These Scottish canvases were interwoven with canvases created by schools in other countries around the Commonwealth (which you can see in the Virtual Golden Tapestry on this website) and the whole tapestry featured a total of seventy-two square metres.
Now that the shows
of the tapestry have finished we We will continue to maintain the online Commonwealth Tapestry; if your school has not yet contributed a description to go alongside the photograph of your tapestry, please e-mail one to millenniumtapestry@btinternet.com, as it adds so much interest. We would like to thank St Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow and Queen's Cross Church, Aberdeen for kindly hosting exhibitions and Aberdeen City Council, BP Exploration and Mackays Ltd, Arbroath for their generous support for the Commonwealth Tapestry.
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Schools
in Scotland from Shetland to the Scottish Borders contributed metre
squares of original textural embroidery to a single collaborative
tapestry designed to welcome the world to the Glasgow 2014
Commonwealth Games, showcasing Scotland and its place in the
Commonwealth. In the lead-up to Glasgow 2014, during the Games and
for some time afterwards the tapestry was on display in St Mary's
Cathedral in Glasgow where it attracted thousands of visitors. In
September it travelled to Aberdeen where it formed an exhibition in
Queen’s Cross Church. We were particularly happy to have a display
in Aberdeen, and are most grateful to the Church though it was a
little disappointing that it was able to host the tapestry for just
two weeks, which gave schools - and local people - only a relatively
short time to arrange visits. 
What
makes the Commonwealth Tapestry so exciting is that, unlike many
artworks which combine contributions from different sources, it is
designed to tell a single, coherent story. It is not simply an
anthology of unconnected stories. Each school focused on one of the
twelve months of the year, portraying what was special to them about
that particular month, and the story it tells is of one year in the
life of Scotland and of the Commonwealth through the eyes of
children. The tapestry juxtaposes Scottish culture with the culture
of different countries around the globe.