Government Praise for Museum Project

Government Praise for Museum Project
Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Replication of more than 50 historic Garrett rug hooking designs salvaged from the remnants of an 1892 pattern factory in New Glasgow, N.S. has earned the highly successful "AT GRANDMOTHER'S KNEE" program more plaudits. The program, initiated by researchers from the Hooked Rug Museum of North America, formally opened the annual meeting of the New Horizon's for Senior Citizens (Service Canada) Review committee meeting this week at Oakwood House in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

Nova Scotia New Horizon's Co-ordinator Judy MacMillan in paying recognition to the organizers rated the effort as the Province's best of the past year and said it had broken new ground in its approach to stimulating seniors to again become active and significant contributors in both preserving threatened history and in training newcomers in the fading ancestral techniques of primitive rug hooking so as to ensure continuity in the folk art.

The program involved 51 seniors, mostly from southwestern Nova Scotia who trained 52 newcomers to rug hooking in a variety of techniques passed down over generations. Launched March 2006, the some 110 hooked and braided rugs completed by the volunteer participants have been donated for future exhibit in the hooked Rug Museum of North America.

The New Horizon's Review committee, consisting of representatives from all over Nova Scotia were given a formal opening presentation by a three person committee including Yvonne Hennigar who was the official co-ordinator of the program, Suzanne Conrod who convened the volunteer aspects of the project (representing Chapter 119, Chester of the Pearl McGown Guild) and researcher Hugh Conrod who chaired the program on behalf of the Ten Beach's Hospitality Society, the project sponsors.

Samples of the amazing replication work by the senior citizens and the self-designed rugs of the newcomers featured the exhibit and the remarkable story of the recovery of hundreds of pieces of previously unknown art work from the mould and grime of the former Garrett factory basement was related by the presentation team. Particular attention was drawn to the additional discovery of rare old stencils, possibly dating back to near the origins of commercial rug pattern design in the mid 1800's. Extensive research is now underway involving the provincial archives here and investigations at the national level into very old patent and copyright data.

Few original hooked rugs from what was the largest rug pattern factory in the world still remain in existence and the few that have been reclaimed are in such poor condition from utilitarian use that after half a century or more they make poor exhibit material, so Museum experts have suggested replication programs such as "At Grandmother's Knee" are the best method of displaying the art as it would have appeared originally.

The major discovery of the earliest known original pen and ink rug design art work in the world and stencils which apparently even pre-date the art work has taken place over the past two years with assistance from surviving members of the Garrett family. Research work will continue until all leads are exhausted. The importance and complexity of the art finds has already stirred interest in Rug Hooking publications across North America.

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