News / Textile museum moves to Lerwick
SHETLAND Textile Working Museum is moving temporarily to Lerwick, where it will be based at the Böd of Gremista from 1 May this year.
The museum has been without a home since 2006, when its lease expired at the Weisdale Mill.
Since then the Guild of Spinners, Knitters, Weavers and Dyers who manage the museum have been working with Shetland Amenity Trust to create a new home at Voe House, in Walls.
However the demand expected in Hamefarin 2010 has made the guild look at a temporary home for this year.
The 18th century Gremista fishing böd was the birthplace of Arthur Anderson, and the story of the building and the man will be told in a restored kitchen and bedroom furnished with original artefacts and a custodian on hand to interpret for visitors.
The textile museum will occupy the remainder of the building, with an activities room on the ground floor, their annual exhibition on the first floor and storage and offices on the top floor.
The textile museum always hosts a themed exhibition each year and this year’s topic is changes in fashion, including knitted Shetland textiles from the 19th century right to the present day, with new pieces commissioned specially.
Items on show will demonstrate Shetland’s traditional heritage through knitted garments and accessories, showing how fashions have changed over the years.
Museum trustees chairman Frank Robertson said: “As well as our annual exhibition, we are planning a programme of textile demonstrations – knitting and spinning, which we hope will encourage others to join in and learn the skills for which Shetland is famous.”
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