Event Details

Jane Beck introduces the eight tapestries on display at The Ruskin, on loan from her private collection. Jane will tell a story of people and place, material and means of production, through rich colour and pattern.

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"Sixteen years ago and at 39 I found myself redundant and orphaned in an unfamiliar land - Wales."

This Private View and talk by Jane Beck, an expert in the social history of welsh textiles, celebrates the loan of eight tapestries from Jane's private collection. It is the first event in a programme of exhibitions, talks, workshops, live performance and late openings which connect Ruskin’s ideas to other artists, designers and makers, in his time and our own.

Jane Beck has lived in Llwyn Y Groes, on the borders of Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire, for 23 years. From a small tin shed shop, she has established a business trading in Welsh blankets, both vintage and new. The tapestries on display are from her private collection.

Neither a weaver nor a specialist in dye techniques, Beck has become an expert in identifying the weave patterns, production methods and provenance of Welsh blankets produced in the past 150 years. In 2012, her website was recognized by the National Web Archive as being of Welsh National Heritage importance, and a valuable research resource. Through the eight textiles on display in The Ruskin, Jane Beck will give a talk on the history of Welsh Blankets and the textile economy in Wales, and look ahead to the future of tapestry in Wales.

Welsh Tapestries enable an appreciation of the connections between resources and means of production, and generate rich conversations around how to preserve knowledge, skill and memory for the future. These were questions that also concerned Ruskin throughout his life. 'Welsh Tapestries' at The Ruskin is the first in a programme of exhibitions, talks, workshops, live performance and late openings which connect Ruskin’s ideas to other artists, designers and makers, in his time and our own.

Find out more about Jane here.

In partnership with Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts.