Call for Exhibition Venues - Spring 2012 - Inverness, Aberdeen, Glasgow ...?

SUGGESTIONS AND CONTACTS FOR SPRING 2012 INVITED

The 2011 Exhibition season for the Touring Tapestry under Arran Johnston's leadership concludes at end November south of the Border at Harrogate International Exhibition Centre. The two English venues [the other is Alexandra Palace London early in October] are at the Knitting & Stitching Exhibition. They attracted 50,000 each in 2010 so total visitor numbers since July 2010 are set to exceed 100,000 by Christmas.

Now all eyes are on 2012, as touring continues and the campaign for a permanent home in Prestonpans builds momentum further yet.

Draft Schedule for 2012 so far ....

2012, just after Easter, will see the Tapestry in Brittany, France from which the Prince set sail in July 1745. Then in June we expect to be back in Edinburgh for at least a week before heading across Canada and then to New York.

Steven Lord, author of Walking with Charlie, will be leading the initial stages of the Canadian tour which will commence at the Royal Halifax Tatoo, Nova Scotia, the first week in July. After that exhibitions are planned for Montreal, Toronto, Saut Ste Marie, across the Prairies, into Edmonton, Calgary and Banff, then across the Rockies to Vancouver, Victoria and Chemainus - the last is the Murals Town that inspired us in The Pans a decade ago. Chemainus is the 2012 Host of the Global Murals Conference that we hosted in The Pans in 2006.

And for October ... an exhibition is planned for New York led by Arran Johnston.

... but as can be seen, there's still room January/ April for exhibitions in Scotland ...

Anyone reading this far, if you have a possible venue and the contacts to help make it happen, please be in touch with us at ajohnston@battleofprestonpans1745.org

We are delighted to make visits to any/ all Scottish communities that were involved with and/ or are intrigued by the Prince's campaign in 1745. In particular however we know we want to find a suitable venue in each of Inverness, Aberdeen and Glasgow.

Big thank yous are due ....

The Trust can never state too often how grateful it is .... not only to our inspirational artist and community leader Andrew Crummy, the 200+ who embroidered the artwork panels, the Panel Beaters who made it whole and the book CD and DVD publishers, but also to the maintenance team that has made the several necessary adjustments to the tapestry over the year and to the myriad volunteers who have staffed the exhibitions and sold the books and mugs, and collected the donations, and hung up and taken down the panels, and re-enacted scenes from the panels in Kirkcaldy and Edinburgh and many another spot ....

We trust the Prince would have approved [not least our Bayeux connection and the widening support from France!]