challenging projects. Students with a full academic load and a part time job quickly learn that they must be very disciplined and weave on a regular schedule.

While lack of content is often a criticism of contemporary tapestry, art students are flush with exciting and intriguing ideas. Tapestry teaches them to develop these ideas within a strong composition. They learn to make a significant time commitment to an idea, and the end result is often an impressive tapestry for which they can be very proud.

The university can provide a wonderful venue for community projects. This last fall my weaving class wove a tapestry that included strips of silk for some of the weft. Each strip had a personal message, in reaction to the anniversary of 9-11, written on it. In this way we embedded the information into the tapestry. Over two hundred people participated in the writing, and 9 students and I did the weaving. We began the project in the lobby of the arts building in order to get people interested in the project and to encourage the students, faculty and visitors to take the time to write down their thoughts. Looking at the front of the tapestry you see the compressed strips of silk with specks of color, which are the written messages. We asked people to sign the end of each strip and these signatures were left hanging on the back of the tapestry. The tapestry is hung several inches away from the wall so that it is easy to see the back with its lush cascade of signed silk strips. This project was a great success for everyone involved. My students were thrown into a situation where they were working on a large project at the beginning of the semester, they had to interact with the public and explain the weaving process, and they worked with a material that they might not normally think of using. I am sure that this project influenced a number of other projects designed by the students later in the semester.

Looking back on all of these years of teaching tapestry to young artists I am both thrilled and dismayed. Thrilled because of all of the diverse and wonderful tapestries that have been woven by the students, and a little dismayed because of how few students choose to continue weaving tapestries after they leave school. If we are not turning out a substantial number of professional tapestry weavers, why should we continue to teach this time consuming technique to young artists? Tapestry is the technique that I have chosen for my own work and I remain committed to it because of its amazing versatility. The knowledge gained through idea development and the process of merging the idea with the technique validate teaching tapestry at the university level.

For further information, please contact, Susan Iverson, Professor, Department of Crafts, Virginia Commonwealth University, Box 842522, Richmond, VA 23284

siverson@vcu.edu http://www.vcu.edu/artweb/