Thank you all who so generously contributed to the setting up of this project called The Covid Chronicle . You have helped so far to fund lining, poles and fixings for the squares to be exhibition-ready, a website, travel costs to exhibiton venues, a full-colour catalogue and a donation to MIND.

There is a new fundraising page now, so we can try to keep the show on the road perhaps longer than anticipated and into 2023. Please visit www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/thecovidchronicle

If you are interested in bidding for a panel, please register your interest by emaling the address below, in order to be notified when the time comes: thecovidchroniclepatchwork@gmail.com You stand to gain a valuable piece of textile art whilst helping MIND in the process.

Thank you all for your continued support. Without you there isnt a show to keep on the road.

Wendy.

Without doubt being creative, in whatever way we enjoy, is good for our mental health and well-being. For those of us who enjoy textiles, an arts project, The Covid Chronicle, was created to help keep us busy and afloat, giving us focus at a time when the world seemed all at sea.

Separately and together, a textiles & stitch art installation has been made to commemorate our individual and collective experience of living with Covid. We now have 140 thoughtful panels stitched together to make one impressive 35 metre long artwork – a kind of Bayeux Tapestry – capturing this special moment in our history. Each panel tells a moving tale has been beautifully made by a wide spectrum of age and gender from around the world. These have been curated and stitched together into blocks of four, making it adaptable to hang horizontally or as a big patchwork quilt. Participating artists have written around 200 words to support the story behind their artwork, and these make a valuable record in their own right.

The Covid Chronicle is now on tour and set to go around the UK, starting at Sunbury Embroidery Gallery, followed by Chippenham Museum; Lightbox Gallery in Woking; Riverside Studios in Hammersmith; Williamson Art Gallery and Museum in Birkenhead; Merton Priory Chapter House; The Spode Museum in Stoke-on-Trent and Studio 40 in neath, Wales in January 2023.

It is hoped that a permanent place will be found for The Covid Chronicle to stay in its entirety, it would be a pity for it to be broken up - but in case a home is not found, the public are being invited to register their interest in bidding for the m2 panels, indicating the reference number which interestes them, for silent auction at a later date. If sold this way all funds remaining after making, touring, advertising costs etc. have been settled, will be donated to MIND.

This page has been set up to raise funds for the tour, with any excess to go to MIND - the shopping list is not huge but the costs tot up and for this The Covid Chronicle needs your help: to get exhibition-ready and on the road, the panels need lining, preparing for hanging with poles & hooks; some panels may need dry cleaning along the way; some printing will be needed, and the work will need to be safely transported around the country. There will be website maintenance costs, and an open book for visitors to record, share and process their personal experiences of the pandemic. If there are sufficient funds, and/or if a sponsor is found, it would be great to print a small catalogue of the work, which would also have the artists' statements alongside the images. This could be sold, with a percentage also going to MIND.

I hope you will engage with our project, and help support its exhibitions, along with MIND, who will surely be instrumental in helping deal with the nation's mental health in the aftermath of the pandemic.

Wendy Bliss.

Founder/curator of The Covid Chronicle.

website: The Covid Chronicle

https://www.facebook.com/groups/thecovidchronicle

Instagram: the_covid_chronicle

Twitter: WendyakBliss

email: thecovidchroniclepatchwork@gmail.com

Artwork shown here: Farzaneh Raji.