Project

Tapestry Tuesdays

Part of Quality Street, pupils and residents from Albany Court came together to share their experiences of the local area and explore places which are important to the community

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We kicked off year two of Quality Street by creating an intergenerational tapestry.


Working with artist Kathryn Horak-Hallett and guest artist Polly Beestone, Year 4 pupils from George and residents from Albany Court came together to share their experiences of the local area and explore places which are important to the community.

Being with the children is like therapy, some of them even remembered me from last year.

Albany Court Resident

Intergenerational gathering at George Mitchell School as part of Tapestry Tuesday project part of Quality Street - pink chair

During this project we trialed a new way of working in the hope of establishing a structure which would be sustainable for partners going forward. This meant the two groups taking part in separate creative sessions before coming together once a term for a regular gathering at the school.

The aim of this new structure was to enable George Mitchell Primary School to host their own regular intergenerational event in the future.

Batik, Vegetable Dying & Knitted Trees

The project began by both groups exploring journeys they have made and those they would like to make. The children mapped out these journeys using fabric and created short videos taking Albany Court on a virtual tour of their journey.

At the first regular gathering we exchanged stories and learnt about Pauline’s adventures in New Zealand and Chris’ childhood in Scotland. Together we added to our tapestry using printing techniques; our once blank tapestry began to take shape.

I learnt that I liked doing stuff with the older people.

Year 4 Pupil

Using different techniques, including dying fabric with beetroot and avocado, we continued to add places that were important to us such as the forest, marked on the map with knitted trees by Joan, and the cinema.

For our final gathering, the groups came together to create a river using large pieces of fabric and a dying technique which produced patterns that looked like rippling water. At the end of the workshop we shared a final moment to look at the different elements each group had contributed and how it felt to see them all together.