Anne Kelly

I am in Canada for the opening of my solo exhibition ‘Unfinished Journey’ at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum in Almonte, near Ottawa. It’s a beautiful heritage building and museum created from an old mill.

I was invited during the dark days of Covid to exhibit here this year and it has been a pleasure to plan and make work for the exhibition.

I like to include a community collaborative element and we put out an open call for bird postcards and received over 80!

I had some very professional assistance hanging the exhibition with two staff members and two volunteers, overseen by the Museum director Michael. He has a great eye and knew exactly how to position the screen/walls for maximum effect.

The focal point of the show is my ‘Unfinished Journey Canoe’ which sadly didn’t make it to Canada but the paddle and an almost lifesize print of it did!

My Folk Fragment banners, last seen at the Knit and Stitch Shows in the UK look great along distressed walls and windows of the museum.

A new piece I made for the exhibition was based on a Canadian Red Cross quilt gifted to me in the UK – and has the birds of the provinces and territories of Canada on it.

I also made three ‘Folk Icons’ dresses based on three amazing Canadian artist women – Emily Carr, Maud Lewis and Anna Torma.

A local resident who collects many textile related objects Joanna Dermenjian kindly sent me some paper napkins from one of her ancestors Martha and I made a hanging about her life. Shown here with four of my portraits.

Here are my park walk books first seen at the Ruthin Craft Centre – my ‘Ottawa’ and ‘Montreal’ ones with a dolls house front in between…

There are two new longer pieces based on travel between the East and West coast of Canada – such a huge country and diversity of landscape.

There are some familiar smaller ‘family and friends’ pieces included in the exhibition, grouped together and mixed in with the larger work.

A large piece ‘Europeans’ occupies a central position and joins the stories of identity and place together.

The exhibition continues until 20 September 2026.