La pantoufle du quartier
2021-2023
2021-2022 season
The project La pantoufle du quartier began with the "Tricot-Thé", a series of workshops with long-time knitter, Janelle Gauthier. Ms. Gauthier gave the participants a real "Quebecois" experience: she shared stories of her childhood, her grandmother's knitting contests and how winter was lively in a traditional Quebec home. She taught participants how to knit the traditional Quebec slipper and explained the history of fentek, the material used to knit the Quebec slipper.
The "Tricot-Thé" workshops were brought to the Walkley Community Center and invited senior women to participate. This activity was facilitated first by Janelle Gauthier and then by Ann Braybon-Smith, who also produced a series of video tutorials for the second year of the project.
The "Style and Decorate" workshops were facilitated by artisans from diverse backgrounds and craft specialities. Some who took part in these workshops learned that Métis beading traditions from Métis beadworker Molly Chamagne; traditional Berber designs with Asma Benaziz from Algeria. Others learned the history of the English rose through embroidery and appliqué with Ann Braybon-Smith. With Chilean fibres artist, Sarabeth Triviño, participants discovered ancestral pattern through beading and embroidery.
The culmination of all of these workshops was the year-end exhibition, that took place from June 1 to 8, 2022 at the Galerie Native Immigrant .
2022-2023 season
The project unfolds in three stages: We first, held a series of knitting workshops facilitated around the stories of traditional Quebec slippers. Join us now for the second step, for the series of slipper embellishment workshops being offered with artists from immigrant and indigenous backgrounds. Lastly, we will invite our participants to partake in an exhibition of their slippers to highlight our cultural mixing and plural identity.
