Volunteer knitters wanted to take part in Own Our Own Time as part of Shetland Arts’ International Textile Festival

Shetland Arts is looking for local knitters to sign up to take part in Own Our Own Time, an outdoor knitting circle project taking place on 1 August as part of Shetland Arts’ International Textile Festival running from 31 July – 5 August this year. Basic knitting skills are required.

Own Our Own Time is an art project that deals with issues of time associated with a human pace, in form of a monumental knitting with 80 people all knitting together in a circle.

The project aims to raise questions about tradition and development, the participants’ own stories and about attention. It is run by the Swedish artist Kerstin Lindstrom with the help of skilled knitters from many countries. This event is being presented in collaboration with Shetland Textile Museum.

Kerstin Lindstrom is well known for her participative performance art, aiming in her work to evoke emotions, and elements of behaviour and relationships with people and places.

Own Our Own Time will take place at the Shetland Textile Museum at the Bod of Gremista on Thursday 1 August from 6-8pm and more information is available at Kerstin’s blog: http://knittingincircle.blogspot.co.uk/ Anyone interested in taking part is asked to email admin@shetlandarts.org.

Shetland Arts’ International Textile Festival will take place in Mareel, Bonhoga Gallery, Shetland Museum & Archives, and other locations in Shetland. The Festival has a strong Nordic theme and will cover the broad activity of textiles; including art, knitting, design, education, and business.

Events for the public and textile enthusiasts include a Nordic textile art exhibition at Bonhoga Gallery called Lighten and a Knitting Conference at Mareel and Shetland Museum & Archives called In the Loop 3.5: Making Connections.

The conference takes place from 31 July to 2 August 2013. At the conference, participants will hear speakers who are experts in the field of textiles, including artists, curators, designers, knitters, theorists, and historians. Artists exhibiting in the Nordic Textile Exhibition Lighten at Bonhoga Gallery will also be attending the conference.

In the Loop 3.5 is the fourth in a series of acclaimed knitting conferences initiated and led by Linda Newington from the University of Southampton Library, this year run in collaboration with Shetland Arts.

Shetland Arts’ Marketing Officer, Lisa Ward, said: “There are loads of knitters in Shetland, from beginners right through to experts, and it’d be great to see a wide range of them getting involved with the International Textile Festival, whether by volunteering to take part in the Own Our Own Time knitting circle, booking a place at the In The Loop 3.5 conference, or by coming along to one of the many other events happening as part of the Festival.”

Members of the public can book a place at the conference for £75 via Shetland Box Office in Mareel and Islesburgh, over the phone on 01595 745 555, or online at www.mareel.org and www.shetlandboxoffice.org

More information about the International Textile Festival and its associated events can be found at http://www.shetlandarts.org/whats-on/festivals/international-textile-festival/

Source: Shetland Arts