The vision of The Millennium Tapestry was to celebrate
the times we live in from the vantage point of the millennium, but
through the eyes of children, to illustrate an element of life as
lived by the children in their schools, reflecting their hopes,
aspirations, opportunities and the issues that affected them, local,
national or global.
The
individual canvases are very beautiful, sometimes quite serious
in their content, but often also very witty. The whole tapestry
reveals the children’s great sense of pride in their schools and
communities, and their work can only inspire us to look forward with
confidence to a future in their hands.
We
mounted thirty-four major public
exhibitions
across the United Kingdom, in museums, art galleries, cathedrals
and other buildings of national heritage.
In addition to
these we took generally smaller display to a number of special
events, in places like the Pump Room in Bath
and the Natural History Museum, Westminster Abbey and the
Commonwealth Institute in London. We held a week-long exhibition
in the Houses of Parliament. Although this was not open to the
general public,
twenty-one
school parties were able to visit it through invitations from
their own MPs. Sections of the tapestry were involved in the
‘Global Issues’ open day in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office,
which attracted several thousand visitors.
On 2nd June 2003 we
put up a large display of the Millennium Tapestry, together with
the first completed canvases in the Golden Tapestry, for the
Coronation Day Children’s Party for 500 underprivileged children at
Buckingham Palace, which was attended by the Queen, the Duke of
Edinburgh and the Earl and Countess of Wessex.
All
the exhibitions during 2002, which included those in Canterbury,
St Albans, Exeter, Truro and St Paul’s Cathedrals and shows in
Earth Centre and the Nature in Art Gallery were an official part
of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee celebrations. Three exhibitions in
the North West, in Manchester Cathedral, the two Liverpool
Cathedrals and at the Manchester
Commonwealth Games themselves additionally formed part of the
Commonwealth Games Spirit of Friendship Festival, the last
showcasing the entire tapestry for the first time.
The most important
and enduring legacy in the United Kingdom is the broadening and
deepening of the education of the children who took part, and the
building and strengthening of the schools’ links with their local
communities.
The
Millennium Tapestry has additionally served as a model
for other projects, both within the United Kingdom and elsewhere
in the world. Many local schools’ projects have made use of the
networks built for the Millennium Tapestry. The Golden Tapestry
involves schools across the whole Commonwealth. A similar project
is now planned in the United States.