Woodbrooke tapestries need new Quaker home

‘The Woodbrooke trustees and the Quaker Arts Network… hope that the tapestries will find new Quaker homes in Britain, in Meeting houses, Quaker schools, and other Quaker venues.’

A series of tapestries created by a Danish Friend need a new Quaker home.

John Lampen, from the Quaker Arts Network (QAN), told the Friend that: ‘Many Friends will remember a series of remarkable tapestries in the corridors at Woodbrooke, woven, and in most cases designed, by Elisabeth Holmgaard. She was a Danish Friend who came to Woodbrooke in the 1970s to “organise the catering”.

‘With the Woodbrooke building being handed over, the collection will have to be dispersed. Catalogues are being made and given to Friends House Library and the Quaker Tapestry Museum.

‘The Woodbrooke trustees and the Quaker Arts Network… hope that the tapestries will find new Quaker homes in Britain, in Meeting houses, Quaker schools, and other Quaker venues.’

According to a memorial testimony from York Area Meeting, Elisabeth Holmgaard first discovered Quakers when she was a staff member at a Quaker-founded school in Copenhagen. It was during her twenty-year stay there that she began weaving tapestries. The Hanna School was founded and run by Debora Halfdan-Nielsen, a Danish Quaker whose aim was to ‘teach adolescent girls to understand themselves’, so that they could ‘find their place in society in the deepest sense’. At Woodbrooke, Holmgaard ‘revolutionised the catering’, says the testimony, alongside her colleague Betty Lee. ‘However, she was not only involved in the kitchen at Woodbrooke. Those who shared her Epilogues and Devotionals will not forget the messages she gave, whether in words, pictures, or music. And no one forgets her tapestry classes.’

Holmgaard was also warden of Bradford-on-Avon Meeting. One of her tapestries hangs in the Quaker Centre of Silver Wattle in New South Wales (‘the Australian Woodbrooke’), where Elisabeth travelled extensively.

The tapestries have been captured by photographer Brian Homer. They can be viewed at www.hopeproject.co.uk/holmgaard, where there is contact information for any Meetings or groups interested in acquiring one.

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