It was over a year ago that Bonnie and I learned that Rowan was launching a thirty-year retrospective of knitwear from their biannual magazines. Rowan’s 30th Anniversary Exhibition has traveled throughout the United Kingdom, Europe and Australia and now it’s here in Lenox, MA. The Exhibit is open for the month of November at the Welles Gallery in the historic Lenox Library. I’ve pictorially documented for you and us its set-up and opening reception.
The Exhibit’s set-up took us three days. Jess, our Rowan rep, brought the packing cases and mannequins in a van from the New Hampshire offices of Westminister Fibers. We off-loaded the van moving the boxes and rigid packing cases into the Welles Gallery. Bonnie and I had no layout readied believing instead in shared inspiration as the best approach.
Bonnie and our colleague, Lois, set to work unpacking and grouping the garments, arranging them by time period. We left the quilts in their case; our objective for the first day was to get them hung against the gallery walls. Some of the posters came in padded cases. Over an hour was spent assembling the mannequins and preliminarily dressing them.
After a break for lunch we spent the rest of the afternoon hanging four of the quilts. We decided to use the remaining three quilts to cover the brochure table. Lois, being a quilter as well as a knitter, took the lead in picking the quilts to hang and selecting the best locations. I took to the ladder equipped with a reel of fishing line. Bonnie and Jess checked alignment. Quitting time was 5 pm.
Days two and three were left to Bonnie and me. With the quilts up it was time to mount the posters on the walls. They were to attach to the walls with Velcro but they refused to stay stuck. One by one they slid down to the floor. Without a second thought we grabbed the roll of duck tape. Our second day was taken up entirely with velcroing and duck taping posters to the walls. When we switched off the gallery’s lights we agreed overnight would test our solution.
Day three, twenty-four hours to the Exhibit’s opening, saw posters down or gingerly hanging by one corner. Seeing small holes on some of the posters we realized that a gentle nailing was possible. While I hammered Bonnie re-dressed the mannequins and finalized their arrangement. We both primped garments stuffing sleeves with tissue paper. Our final tasks were setting up the brochure table, placing chairs and affixing the signage for each group of garments. With an hour to spare before the gallery closed Rowan’s 30th Anniversary Exhibit was ready.
The Exhibit opened on Friday, November 6th. The reception was on Saturday evening. It was Bonnie’s idea to have the reception catered by Chocolate Springs Cafe. A Lenox-based business, chocolatier Joshua Needleman specializes in handcrafted European-style gourmet chocolates. Josh brought strawberries dipped in dark and milk chocolate, raspberry and chocolate mousses, tea-infused chocolates, macaroons and cake-like oreos filled with creamy dark chocolate. Drinks included serious hot chocolate that you could top with freshly made, whipped marshmallow.
Many guests came in their Rowan-knit sweaters. Standing with Lois are Bonnie in Kaffe Fassett’s Pennants Cardigan and Lauren in Kaffe’s Tumbling Blocks. Jess is wearing another Kaffe sweater and my husband, George, is wearing a sweater designed by Brandon Mably.
By the time the reception ended I had found a new task for myself – seeing if it was possible to assemble yarns for Kaffe's Long Leaf Coat.
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