Journeys to Gateshead
Equal Arts worked with the Zayis Raanon community group based in Gateshead on a project that provided opportunities for a group of Jewish women to work with writer Gillian Allnutt and textile artist Fiona Rutherford on the "Journeys to Gateshead" tapestry.
As Terry Steinberg writes in the introduction to the book The Kitchen Suitcase which came out of the project, the women involved "all different ages, all coming from different homes, with different journeys, different backgrounds and different stories. Each an individual thread to add to the tapestry. Each a different motif represented in the work. All bound together by the golden glow of the Shabbos candles at the centre of the tapestry."
The finished tapestry was installed in the newly restored Saltwell Towers in Saltwell Park at the heart of the Jewish community in Gateshead. The Kitchen Suitcase came runner up in the national Raymond Williams Community Publishing competition in 2005.
