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Linen Journeys in Design

Flax and Linen Festivals Scotland

3 – 19 September 2021, Fife 

Welcome to Our Linen Stories Tours page, showing our rolling programme of tours across Scotland and beyond.

This year we are delighted to present Scotland’s first Flax and Linen Festival in collaboration with communities across Fife.

Events registration via our Journeys in Design Eventbrite channel.

 

Programme Summary

Exhibition: Our main Festival Exhibition takes place in Stocks Carpets, a former Linen Works, Links St Kirkcaldy.

Walks: A new series of Heritage and Design Walks throughout the county, mapping linen stories with local experts and enthusiasts

Open Doors: Special entry to Artists Studios, Silverburn Park Flax Mill and Auchtertool House Gardens with related displays

Zoom Roundtable: ‘Think Global, Grow Local’, Scottish and International participants invited to explore shared flax cultures

Twilight Talks: ‘Making Well with Heritage’, our panel and audience engage on well-being and culture

Festival Encounters: A series of informal encounters with experts and enthusiasts throughout Scotland and further afield

 

Our Journey to Date

After research and liaison with key allies in Scotland, visiting centres in Holland, Belgium and N.Ireland, Our Linen Stories launched in Leith in May 2018.

Our rolling Tour programme is set out below by location, commencing 2018, adding further tours, the most recent on top. In 2019, we retraced our steps to say thank you to the many communities and local people who had contributed. We also began to develop our Flax Futures programme of legacy initiatives with key allies. We brought the programme together at the end of 2019 with an Exhibition and Events series in Edinburgh. We managed a Pop Up during Lock Down, thanks to Kirkcaldy Galleries and R Space Lisburn.

In 2021, Journeys in Design is delighted to present Scotland’s first Flax and Linen Festival, taking place in venues across Fife. Our main Festival Hub, Exhibition and Talks are in Kirkcaldy, with satellite events in Ceres, Strathmiglo, Falkland, Markinch, Auchtertool, Leven, Dunfermline, Burntisland and Inverkeithing. Programme details on our Events page.

With the first presentation of our core stories we began an extraordinary journey, gathering local tales from around the country and beyond, hearing stories of art, design and industry and celebrating contemporary design in each region, evolving our exhibition and archive en route. We are deeply grateful to all those who have added to our journey and look forward to continuing with you in the months to come. Please visit our News webpages to read more about our Flax Futures and if you like, to offer any Linen Stories of your own.

Scotland
Scots have been growing Flax for centuries and were once central to the world’s Linen trade. The flax fields of Fife alone employed thousands, this industry preceding those more celebrated of cotton, paisley and jute. Our Linen Stories tours to sites of significance throughout the country platforming contemporary Scottish designers and highlighting links between art, design, trade and industry.
Ireland
‘Irish’ and ‘Linen’: two words that run together to create a brand in themselves. Through a traditional craft base, migrant skill, Acts of Union, and hard work, industrialisation brought wealth and an international reputation to the country’s northern counties. Our Linen Stories explores the sometimes rivalrous Scots Irish linen links and exhibits contemporary design talent from N.Ireland.
The Low Countries
Exciting developments in material innovation and a commitment to product development continue to set Holland apart as a true Design Nation; ‘twas ever thus, the country giving name to a type of linen and a machine to pulp textile. In former times, The Netherlands were crucial to Scotland’s foreign trade efforts and the eastern ports like Leith and Kirkcaldy were once vital hubs. Later imports of seed and flax from Northern France, Belgium and The Netherlands for linen production and finishing provided essential revenue. Our Linen Stories reflect on these former European Unions.

Our Tour Locations

Please enjoy our Journey in Design. With each location, we offer details of new displays curated and community events produced local to each of our chosen venues. We are very grateful for the support and skill of the teams who collaborated so generously at each venue.

Onward Journeys

Our Linen Stories continues in Scotland this year with a focus on Fife. We look forward to linking with our Linen neighbours in N.Ireland in 2020, on mainland Europe in 2021 and to following flax routes to North America in 2022. Our Events page gives details of all our latest programmes.