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New arts festival slated for downtown Courtenay

Filberg Centre, other locations to be used for 2015 textiles ‘expo’

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Pieces: Celebrating Textiles is an immersion in hand work and contemporary thought related to textiles, bringing together making, materials and meaning.

Charllotte Kwon, of Maiwa fame, provides the opening night Conversation, setting the context for this event within a slow fashion framework.

The Florence Filberg Centre will be the place to plunge into textile sumptuousness, March 27-29, 2015.

Pieces offers a program of presentations, interactions, demos, performance, installations, skill sharing, delectable food, vendors and more.

Pieces will also be scattered throughout Fourth and Fifth streets with gallery, demos and children’s offerings for the public.

Within the Filberg Centre, amidst a backdrop of full spectrum colour and textile heaven, there will be the upstairs ticketed event with making and mending, eating and vending downstairs for the general public to enjoy.

Pieces celebrates the plethora of talented artisans of Vancouver Island and surrounding areas.

Start at the beginning, digging into Vancouver Island’s historical textile stories and fibres, the festival follows the curve of time on the islands, looking at the origin textiles of the early Coast Salish and other Nations.

Special guests

Jan Ross of Emily Carr House will talk about “womanly arts” and how these have been cast into the diminutive.

Kwon and others will lead participants into a Global Conversation, delving into textile dilemmas, as well as what’s in your closet.

Textile author, Leanne Prain, makers, artisans and Swap O Rama Rama will be shaking up the possibilities while delving into how to make meaning with cloth, yarn and other fibres.

There will be opportunities to explore the world of upcycling, remodelling and repurposing with amazing and simple ideas to inspire you.

Come find out what Swam O Rama Rama is all about and how the commuity could start one in the Comox Valley.

There will be a kids’ program going on at the museum and lots of local businesses offering short in-house demonstrations or showcasing textiles.

The festival will close with Endnotes, a conversation on Cloth, Memory and Mourning.

Tickets on sale now

Early bird tickets for the upstairs are now on sale until Decc 31, in time for holiday gift giving.

Find tickets at Uptown Yarns in Courtenay and the Village Yarn Shoppe in Comox.

Berwick, Comox Valley is providing a generous sponsorship for the event.

North Island College International — the major sponsor — is supporting Pieces through the Global Learning Innovation Fund, which offers student involvement with an innovative twist.

Come together in this meeting place for community, expression, diversity, mastery, learning, pleasure, joy, performance, and a   myriad of amazing materials and finished works to explore.