General Arts and Culture News

[Spokes]

Art meets music in Hespeler
August 24, 2014 | Paige Desmond | The Record | Link

HESPELER — It may very well take a day and a night to complete a massive public art project at the A Day and A Night Art Meets Music Festival in Hespeler.

Hundreds of metres of fabric were being woven on a giant, custom-built loom through the Saturday event to later be displayed somewhere in the community.

The project is the brainchild of artist Sue Sturdy.

"Hespeler was once the Silicon Valley of textiles," she said.

She said there even used to be a Hespeler textile festival.

The art project celebrates that rich history in Cambridge and contributes to the all-day festival's theme this year of fibre art.

Volunteers from Community Living Cambridge were busy stacking, smoothing and preparing eight-foot-long sheets of fabric to be hand-inserted into the loom.

Local community groups have been crafting small squares to be sewn together and incorporated into the artwork. The finished product was expected to measure about 20 feet long and eight feet wide.

Joe Sousa, a Community Living volunteer, doesn't have much weaving experience, but was happy to get involved.

"We've made about 300 of the small squares," he said.

The organization has been getting clients and others involved leading up to the festival to help with the fabric squares.

But where exactly does one find a loom big enough to sew a 20-foot textile?

That's where Dave Oleson came in.

He built the loom, which was atop a flatbed truck, after telling Sturdy he may be able to help.

"I kind of opened my big mouth," Oleson said.

Oleson and other volunteers helped community members use the loom so they could be part of the creation.

"We're going to let people get involved with a huge piece of public art," Sturdy said.

Along with the public art project various buskers, artists and actors entertained at the festival.

Despite some grey skies on and off throughout the day the weather appeared to be holding out for the fourth annual event which was to wrap up around 8 p.m.

The weather was also good news for the LINK Picnic Festival in Kitchener that wraps up at 3 p.m. Sunday with the annual children's carnival parade.

The 26th annual Sun Life Financial Waterloo Busker Carnival continues until Sunday as well with performances set to finish at 4 p.m.