On Saturday May 7 at 11:00 am, Small Museums Canada will lead a community forum exploring the feasibility of establishing a wool-processing facility — the ‘Rosamond Woolworks’ — at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum.
A national heritage site, the MVTM building was originally part of the historic Rosamond’s Mill No.1 established in 1867.
Local challenges, local solutions
Revival of commercial-grade fleece processing would help the museum become self-sustaining. It would also help the community at large, including youth in need of new skills and meaningful employment.
The proposed facility would be a ‘living exhibit’ using Canadian-made, commercial-grade equipment to turn regionally-sourced fleece into a wide range of finished goods including yarn, stuffing, quilt batts, and processed fleece. These products could in turn be sold to makers or used for on-site weaving, knitting, crocheting and felting. The Woolworks would boost tourism while providing work for a broad range of local growers, makers, technicians, marketers and sellers.
Event details
Free and open to the public, the Rosamond Woolworks exploration meeting will be held at the Mill Workers’ Learning Centre on the second floor of the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum starting at 11 am on Saturday May 7, 2016. Feel free to come as early as 10 am to chat over coffee.
Graham Larkin and Lizz Thrasher of Small Museums Canada will join MVTM Executive Director/Curator Michael Rikley-Lancasater in presenting their vision for a Centre for Textile Heritage and Innovation combining production facilities (the Woolworks) with a historical research centre.
This free event is open to all, and we are hoping to attract a wide range of people, including agricultural producers, fibre artists, artisans, educators and community development leaders.
Community support will help make this event a success, so please contact us if you can act as a sponsor or volunteer.
Following the morning’s session, please join us at the Norah Rosamond Hughes Gallery at 2 pm for the opening of CU: Copper and Textile Fabrications featuring the work of metal weavers Fran Solar and Sayward Johnson.
Pre-registration is not required, but an RSVP on our Contact page would be appreciated.
