I was shocked to read the article below this morning. This little museum is about 30 miles east of me and I've both exhibited at and visited their needlework exhibits happily for years until they stopped them for lack of funding and manpower.
http://needleprint.blogspot.com/2012/07/loudon-museum-threatened-with-closure.html
The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors is thinking about closing the Loudoun County Museum. This place houses a lot of Loudoun County history and thanks to Betty Flemming, there is a great deal of stitched history. I'm talking lots of local samplers, clothing and quilts.
I hope all you sampler fans will write the Board and ask that they at least keep the textile collection together and in Loudoun County by donating it to Oatlands Plantation, also in Loudoun County. Otherwise a piece of Loudoun County's soul will be lost and Loudoun County will be just another suburb among the D.C. suburbs. The Board of Supervisors are at BOS@loudoun.gov. Here's a little bit about the museum itself. It has a nice collection of photographs and documents about the county. It's not just samplers we're talking about here. This is a substantial piece of Loudoun County history that will go God knows where.
http://www.loudounmuseum.org/home.html
Here is Oatlands Plantation's website. It is better funded, although I doubt it is financially secure either. What museum is in these times? It's probably almost ten miles from the Loudoun County Museum, at a guess.
http://www.oatlands.org/
The majority of us are women who understand that over the history of mankind, the stories of female stitchers are often undocumented. Certainly needlework of all kinds is not considered valuable by the majority of our fellow citizens. This is our story they are taking about discarding, folks. Please email the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors and tell them how you feel about that disrespect for us, the history of all people in this area, and how some things are more important than money.
UPDATE: Donna and LaDonna say it best.
http://majtravaux.blogspot.com/2012/07/loudoun-museum.html
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment