Chairman's Report, Embroiderers' Guild Annual General Meeting
5th April 2003

Part One / Part Two

So how were these objectives carried out in 2001- 2002?

The first objective is to promote and encourage the art of embroidery and related crafts and encourage the creation of fine articles incorporating the use of or associated with embroidery.

The major vehicle for the promotion of embroidery is exhibitions and events. Unfortunately, because the Guild is without its own exhibiting venue at the moment the Guild's aim to promote embroidery to everyone is often controlled by external factors such as the exhibiting policies and facilities of other galleries and museums not to mention the cost of hiring external venues.

In 2001-2 the biennial international exhibition, art of the Stitch, and the accompanying exhibition, Generation, were the two major exhibitions seen by over 10,000 visitors in the Mall Galleries in London and the Williamson Art Gallery in Birkenhead. Generation also visited the Gallery of Costume in Manchester and Kingston Museum. A wide-ranging educational programme accompanied these exhibitions. Its major focus was to promote embroidery to members of the general public, particularly young people. The content and aim of our exhibitions vary to allow the Guild to create different events for different people.

The next art of the Stitch and its accompanying exhibition, Sample, will open in the Williamson Art Gallery, in Birkenhead on 30th August this year, moving to the Dutch Textile Museum in Tilburg, Holland on 8th November and then to Hall Place, Bexley in Kent from 13 March 2004.

Scholarships and awards promote embroidery and encourage embroidery production. Different types of awards are appropriate to different groups. The Guild aims to offer a wide range of exhibiting opportunities for embroiderers of all abilities.

Entries from this year's Annual Members Competition, Signs and Symbols were on show at Royal Holloway College. The theme for 2004 is Gardens and Charles will have some good news on this later.

The next Members' Exhibition, the Riches of Stitches, is planned to open at the Collins Gallery in Glasgow to coincide with next years AGM in April 2004.

The Embroiderers' Guild Future of Design Award for Embroidery promotes the Embroiderers' Guild to current textile graduates. The winner's work, and that of the two annual Guild Scholars has also been on show at the college.

Promoting embroidery means taking part in shows such as the Knitting & Stitching Show and Creative Stitches. Our presence at these events brings us into contact with many potential embroiderers. Rebecca Waechter and the Outreach Van with the bookshop visited twenty events, commercial shows and Regional Days throughout the UK and Ireland during 2001-2. The Guild also produced the first fully illustrated full colour catalogue containing an excellent selection of books for embroiderers and you will have seen from the accounts that there has been a significant increase in sales figures and turnover during the year under review. A new Catalogue will be available in May and I would encourage you to support the work of the Guild by purchasing your books from the Guild's bookshop. In preparation for a move to a new Centre it is essential to build up our retail capabilities and a very significant purchase recently has been a computer system which enables the retail staff to track the stock, analyse the sales, and keep customer records.

We also promote embroidery through publishing the three magazines, Embroidery, Stitch with the Embroiderers' Guild and Textile Ideas. Textile Ideas the magazine for the under 18s is now 16 pages in full colour with a pull-out activity page. The older age group also receive a newssheet called Connect. Stitch with the Embroiderers' Guild continues to go from strength to strength thanks to Kathy Troup and her production team. Latest figures for subscriptions show that they are at their highest ever level.

September 2001 saw the appointment of Polly Leonard as the new editor of Embroidery and the magazine has been relaunched in a new design format and in full colour. This transformation is still continuing and if you haven't seen a copy recently I urge you to do so. Embroidery and Stitch make up over 55% of the total income of the Guild… by subscribing you are helping to ensure the future of embroidery.

The second charitable objective is to educate the public in the history and art of embroidery and to undertake or support research in that subject and to publish the useful results of that research.

The Guild is a major provider in the field of education for adults and young people. This is the principal way in which the Branches fulfil the Guild's charitable objectives too…by offering a fantastic network of workshops, lectures, activities and social opportunities for embroiderers throughout the country. Thank you to all Branches and Regions for providing such varied opportunities for our Members.

As part of the provision of life-long learning the Workshop programme for adults continues to be popular despite the space restrictions and the limited facilities at Hampton Court. The Guild now delivers a very successful City & Guilds Course, First Steps in Stumpwork. A distance learning package is now being considered.

We are increasingly working with younger audiences as these are the Members who will ensure the development of embroidery in the future. I am very pleased to report that Young Embroiderers Groups throughout the country are thriving and there were 100 YE Groups and 1,772 YE Members (including Group leaders and helpers) at the end of the financial year.

I would like to thank Chris Cannon, the Chairman of YE for the past 6 years and Claire Buckley, the Vice-Chairman of YE for their achievement in making the Young Embroiderers the success it is today. Both Chris and Claire have completed their terms of office today…thank you very much to you both for all your work with our Young Embroiderers.

I would also like to thank all the Young Embroiderers Group Leaders and Group Helpers throughout the country for their enthusiasm and commitment to our young Guild Members.

The de Denne competition, Me/Us in Jubilee Year attracted some very exciting and outstanding work. Unfortunately the exhibition of these entries at the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green was very disappointing. Various factors beyond our control meant that the work of our young embroiderers was not celebrated as it should have been. I apologise for this but it does underline the difficulties which can occur when using outside venues. I look forward to seeing the work of our young Members at the Riches of Stitches Exhibition next year.

National Children's Art Day encourages and inspires children to engage with art. This year the Guild worked with a young artist, Deborah Weldon and a local Junior school in Kingston, on a project Hands on Hats. Such a project provides an excellent opportunity for promoting embroidery in schools.

With the increase in YE Groups and young Members it is vital that all Guild Members should be aware of the Guild's Child Protection Policy, Safeguarding Young People.

May 2002 issue of Contact contained the policy statement and the headings of the Code of Good Practice. The procedures and guidelines for implementation which enable the policy to be applied consistently throughout the Guild have now been finalised and a copy of these has been placed on your seat this morning.

The Guild is a major provider of arts activity not only through Young Embroiderers but increasingly through our developing learning programme which provides learning opportunities for a wider young audience.

How do parents know their children and young people are safe attending Guild activities?

What would you ask to reassure yourself of the safety and well being of your child engaging with the Guild, and what information would you expect to receive?

If you are a volunteer or a paid staff member working for the Guild how does the Guild support and protect you in your work with children and young people?

Safeguarding Young People will answer all these questions and many more.

Safeguarding Young People and updates will be sent to all YE Group Leaders, Group Helpers, Branch Chairmen, Regional Committees and all Guild staff on a regular basis, beginning with a mailing following the launch of the document today. I would like to thank everyone who has been involved in the development and consultation process but in particular I wish to thank the Deputy Director, Lynn Szygenda for her extensive work in researching the background, organising the consultative process and writing the final document.

The Guild's third charitable objective is to collect document preserve exhibit and interpret examples of fine embroidery which are of historical or educational merit and to make available to the public such articles.

I outlined in my report the difficulties of achieving this objective in the current premises at Hampton Court. Cataloguing and improved storage of the Collection is continuing…7,029 objects have now been digitally catalogued out of an approximately 11,000. This important curatorial obligation is hampered by lack of space as correctly stored items take up more room than badly stored ones. The present storage capacity is full with the consequence that continuing to collect proactively is no longer feasible.

Since 1989 the Guild has been a registered museum, a hallmark of quality for Museums. This registered status has meant that we were able to apply to the Heritage Lottery Fund for funding for the new Centre. But it is becoming extremely difficult to maintain these standards for such a physically diverse collection at Hampton Court. A new Centre would improve the situation immeasurably offering unprecedented access to the Collection.

Providing this access to the Collection is extremely difficult at present. During the year under review individual students and some Branches were able to access the collection and there were study days for Members. These opportunities will continue. Similarly, it is the Guild's policy to continue to make the library, a rare and valuable resource for embroidery researchers, publicly accessible. Embroideries from the collection have featured in our own and loan exhibitions, and articles on objects from the Collection are regularly published in Stitch and Embroidery.

Vital to the success of any organisation is good governance. The Embroiderers' Guild gratefully acknowledges and thanks all Members who work voluntarily to help the Guild achieve the charitable objectives - officers and committees of the Branches, officers and committees of the Regions, and members of the sub committees, the Council, and the Executive of the Guild.

We welcomed 7 new Branches in 2001-2 and were very sorry to lose two. At the end of the financial year we had a total of 230 Branches and 100 Young Embroiderers Groups

To conform to Government Regions, Regional boundary changes were effected in September 2001 giving the Guild 8 Regions. In September 2002 the NE Region became 2 Regions. Future Regional developments include the division into two of the London & SE Region and the establishing of a separate Wales Region. It has always been the Executive's policy to encourage cross-Regional participation.

The workload of the staff team at Hampton Court continues to increase. Not only are they continuing to develop all aspects of the Guild's policies in difficult working conditions but they are also starting the development work towards moving to a new Centre. All the Guild staff are to be commended and thanked for their work. Much of this extra work falls on the shoulders of two people, the Director, Michael Spender and Deputy Director, Lynn Szygenda and I would like to thank them for their continued commitment to the Guild.

Finally I would personally like to thank the Executive Committee for their work this year, for their dedication and commitment to the Guild, for their support and active participation in meetings. My sincere thanks to the Council representatives, Edna Gibbs, Margaret Howe, and Alison Rennie and to the Honorary Treasurer Harry Williamson. My especial thanks to Charles Gotto, the President and to Llinos Spriggs, the Vice-Chairman, for their help and advice throughout the year.

Someone once said that a committee is a group that keeps minutes and loses hours. Your Executive Committee certainly spend many hours making decisions - decisions which are in the best interests of the Embroiderers' Guild and its Members - decisions which have the charitable objectives of the Guild at their very heart.

Chris Berry
(Chairman of the Embroiderers' Guild)
April 5th 2003