QAN revives calendars for 2025
A new calendar has been launched by the Quaker Arts Network
The Quaker Arts Network (QAN) has released a calendar for 2025, drawing on its Loving Earth Project.
This will be the third calendar QAN has produced, following its first in 2014, which featured art in different media depicting Quaker worship. The second in 2018 commemorated the centenary since the end of the first world war, through artworks inspired by the Quaker Peace Testimony.
Linda Murgatroyd, co-founder of QAN, told the Friend: ‘This time the final publication from the Loving Earth Project draws on some of the 500 textile art panels about aspects of the environmental crisis and what people are doing to help. The twelve beautiful panels are reproduced full size… so if you look closely you can see the inventiveness and skill with which they were made. They will liven up your office, Meeting house or kitchen wall, and have plenty of space for writing in appointments. They are also a great year-round tool for outreach, as they provide a starting point for conversations about environmental questions, Quakers, or arts and crafts.’
The Loving Earth Project began in 2019 when Friends were invited to create textile artworks celebrating nature, people, and places they loved that were threatened by environmental breakdown. ‘Groups of panels continue to be exhibited, most recently in Winchester, Leighton, Lewes – where the calendars have been very popular – and in France, in partnership with the French Protestant Church,’ said Linda.
In choosing panels for this calendar, QAN aimed to find ‘a loosely seasonal theme’, and to use panels that had not been included in the other Loving Earth books, although this wasn’t always possible. ‘We also looked closely at the quality and variety of the craft work, which is stunning,’ added Linda.
The calendars are now available from the Quaker Bookshop. Ten or more calendars can be purchased directly from http://lovingearth-project.uk/shop. Anyone interested in hosting an exhibition in 2025 is encouraged to contact: lovingearthproject@gmail.com.
