| Guilds comprise an organizational network that is beautifully positioned to reach out to new weavers and help sustain the craft. To encourage these important activities, Handwoven will award two $500 awards, one to a large guild (75 or more members) and one small guild (less than 75 members) that demonstrate outstanding outreach and support programs that create new weavers.
This is the third year Handwoven is pleased to welcome its industry partners, who have joined the program to broaden the reach of the FiberHearts award. In addition to the two $500 cash awards sponsored by Handwoven, industry sponsors will provide equipment and supplies to those guilds that demonstrate a need for portable equipment such as frame, inkle, and table looms and supplies for using them. This year’s partners are: Bountiful (inkle loom), Gilmore Looms (shuttles), Golding (Bobbin winder), Good Wood Looms (Frame loom) Halcyon Yarn (50 skeins/mini-cones of any selection of their Signature Yarns), Kessenich (table loom), Louet (table loom), Montana Looms (table loom or inkle loom with warping board), Jonathan Seidel (box loom), Schacht Spindle Company (Flip folding rigid heddle loom), Weaving for Life (Seven-Stick Loom).
The winning guilds will also have their programs featured in Handwoven. All applicants will receive a copy of Mastering Weave Structures by Sharon Alderman. To get motivated, review the winners from the past three years to see what they are doing.
To apply for the award, please complete the worksheet and write a two-page essay as outlined below. Attach to your application any press clippings regarding your guild’s activities that you would like to share and a cover letter. Handwoven will retain all application materials. Applications are due May 1, 2008. Applicants will notified by May 31.
Essay Guidelines—Please make sure to cover the following points in your two-page essay:
- Do you sponsor any public events or perform public demonstrations? If so, how do you use these demonstrations to recruit new weavers?
- Do you have any cooperative relationships with area retailers, other guilds, schools, etc.? How do they benefit beginners?
- How do you publicize your meetings?
- Do you have any new-member recruitment programs? How do they work?
- How are new members integrated into the guild? Please be specific.
- Does your guild have a lending library and/or an equipment lending program?
Who’s eligible for it?
- Does your guild have any specific methods for retaining members and/or ensuring the success of new weavers?
- How would an award of portable looms and equipment make your program more successful?
- What would your guild do with its $500 grant to create new weavers?
Only complete applications that arrive by May 1, 2008, will be considered. Applications must include a cover letter, application worksheet, and two-page essay. Press clippings are optional.
Please send your application to FiberHearts C/O Interweave Press, 201 E. 4th St., Loveland, CO 80537. For more information contact Liz Gipson at lizg@interweave.com or (970) 613-4629.
FiberHearts Application Worksheet
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