GRAMNet Palestinian Embroidery: Empowering Women and Strengthening Communities

Please note this event will take place at Glasgow Women's Library, 23 Landressy Street.

Convinced of textile’s transformative potential at both a personal and communal level, Palestinian Embroidery: Empowering Women and Strengthening Communities explores the multifaceted identity of textiles, with a focus on domestic textile crafts passed down through generations of women (e.g. embroidery in the West Bank and Gaza and knitting in Glasgow (and Scotland more broadly)). The workshops and final exhibition will deliver a peaceful message about cultural exchange and mutual understanding.

Participants will learn traditional Palestinian embroidery techniques and symbols - each motif is distinctive (e.g. the cross for Glasgow’s twinned town Bethlehem or amulets for Gaza) - and incorporate these into modified and adapted knit patterns from the Glasgow Women’s Library archive collections.

The workshops are open to all interested women. Please note no previous embroidery or knitting experience is required as workshops are suitable for beginners through to the more experienced and all attendees will be invited to skill share through cultural exchange.

Participants are welcome to drop in to workshops, however booking is recommended as places are limited.

This exhibition will celebrate outcomes from the Palestinian Embroidery workshops which took place through Spring. Alongside these new works we present documentation of traditional Palestinian embroidery from partners in the West Bank.

The opening event on Friday 6th May from 2pm to 4pm will include presentations from workshop participant Olivia Mason and Noora Husseini, founder of Taita Leila, a social enterprise inspired by the long and rich tradition of Palestinian embroidery, linked via the Internet to Glasgow Women’s Library from Ramallah.