Well its done. After all those months the Eastern Region Textile Forum has been well and truly launched with a conference that was packed to the rafters. The day disappeared in a blur even though I did have the urge to do a runner just before I was confirmed in the post of Chairman . The phrase 'oh help, what have I done' just kept running around in my head.
We had 3 excellent short talks in the morning from Ann Wise of the Warner Archive, Alison Couchman from an educators viewpoint and Annette Morgan speaking as an exhibiting artist. These sparked off much discussion and a framework was put into place which will probably take about 20 years to fulfill completely.
The afternoon was less hard work when James Hunting- 2006 Embroiderers Guild Scholar, Artist,Tutor and all round great human being took to the floor.His talk about his work and the value of organisations such as the forum was just what was needed to round off the day.
So now the real work begins- an enthusiastic committee (we weren't short of volunteers - I always knew Textile Artists are special people) was formed and we start our 'great work'.
watch this space, here comes the ERTF!