Cultural Activities Program Grant Gets Approved!

The Nova Scotia Department of Tourism, Culture, and Heritage has recently approved a Cultural Activities Program Grant which will assist the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic in holding a flax spinning workshop at the museum in the spring, 2010. The workshop will consist of the Ice House Spinners, a group of dedicated spinners who volunteer weekly at the museum, as well as other interested museum interpreters. Jennifer Green, current artist-in-residence at the NSCAD Lunenburg Studios, will lead the workshop. Jennifer feels that by adding flax spinning to the repertoire of the Ice House Spinners, the public will come away with a more complete look at the textile traditions of the Maritimes and the work of women in rural fishing villages.

Jennie Spinning Flax

At the beginning of October, I met a wonderful group of hand-spinners who volunteer at the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic in downtown Lunenburg. I joined them every Wednesday and shared their company as we spun for an audience of museum goers. On one occasion, a man named Earl was visiting the museum to see our flax spinning demonstration. As he watched me spin, he recounted his experience growing flax in 1937 for a school project. He had such sincere appreciation for these traditional skills and was pleased they were still being practiced in his hometown that it left quite an impression on me.

Flax spinning demonstrations will continue at the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic in May 2010.

Photos by Kat Frick Miller