Is it ok to be a wee bit proud? We think so. Dr Andrew Crummy, the artist behind The Great Tapestry of Scotland, has delivered his first TEDx Talk – in Mexico.
The talk was smooth in delivery and moving in content – outstanding, inspirational and uplifting. Andrew talked of the power of the arts in community to transform lives. Starting with his personal history and bringing in the work of his mother, Helen Crummy, Andrew explored his own background and how he became involved in community tapestries which lift and educate and offer a creative outlet for all involved. He also unveiled a new panel, stitched in Mexico, for the Cancer Tapestry which he started during treatment for his own battle with cancer.
You can watch the talk it here.
How do Art and Science converge? When a Cancer patient is observed sketching an image of all of the physical and emotional issues that a patient, family, friends, physicians, and the health care system have to deal with when a Cancer diagnosis is delivered. That is art and science coming together.
The outcome – beginning with the Scotland Cancer Tapestry and now expanding to the Mexican Cancer Tapestry – a hand-stitched tapestry which aims to tell in 1,000 panels the story of cancer: the highs, the lows; the pain, the joy; the hopes, and the depression, that cancer patients and care givers experience when treating this very difficult disease.
Artist Andrew Crummy and The Great Tapestry of Scotland
Andrew Crummy took the inspirational dream of Sir Alexander McCall Smith and worked with Scotland’s people’s historian Alistair Moffat to create the design for each panel in The Great Tapestry of Scotland, the longest stitched tapestry in the world. His designs were stitched by more than 1000 women and a handful of men, across the country from the islands of the west to the Scottish Borders. It is now housed in a purpose built gallery in Galashiels. If you haven’t been – you really should!
