The Ridgewood Patch – Cottage Place Gallery Presents “Pax Rwanda,” Embroideries by Rwandan Women’s Workshop “Savane Rutongo
By Katherine Hyde
The Cottage Place Gallery in Ridgewood is pleased to present “Pax Rwanda: Embroideries of the Women of Savane Rutongo,” September 8 through September 30, at the Unitarian Society of Ridgewood.
The opening reception will be held Saturday, September 8, from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM, and there will be a slide lecture on Saturday, September 29 at 7:00 PM by Juliana Meehan, collector and creator of this traveling exhibit. The public is welcome. Other hours are by appointment. Please call 201-444-6225. The Gallery is located at the Unitarian Society of Ridgewood, 113 Cottage Place, Ridgewood, NJ, www.uuridgewood.org.
The Bergen Record – Society of African Missions in Tenafly to Host Panel of Rwanda Experts
The African Art Museum of the Society of African Missions (SMA Fathers) announces the opening of Pax Rwanda: Embroideries by Women of Savane Rutongo, an exhibit that celebrates a unique collection of embroideries and the women who created them.
This opening will include a panel of speakers who will discuss the exhibit and other topics concerning modern Rwanda. The women who create these embroideries live in the aftermath of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsis.
The Columbus Dispatch – African threads intertwined
By Elizabeth Trapp
In the village of Rutongo, in the hills high above the Rwandan capital of Kigali, a collective of women embroiders lively, luminous landscapes that chronicle Rwandan life.
More than 30 such works are on view in the exhibit “Pax Rwanda: Embroideries of the Women of Savane Rutongo,” in the Northwood ARTSpace near the Ohio State University campus.
Puffin to host ‘Pax Rwanda: Embroideries of the Women of Savane Rutongo’
An unique exhibition featuring museum quality embroideries created by women of Rwanda will be on display at the Puffin Cultural Forum, from June 8-July 25, with an opening reception Friday, June 8 at 7 p.m. The creative force behind them is Christiane Rwagatare, who fled Rwanda with her family and escaped the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi.
Puffin hosts opening of exhibition, “Pax Rwanda: Embroideries of the Women of Savane Rutongo”. Here is one of the artworks of wheat harvesters.
While studying business and living in Romania, she learned European embroidery techniques; when she returned to Rwanda after the genocide, she met a group of women trying to earn a living by embroidering tablecloths and other small linens and offered to teach them European methods, which she further developed into her own special technique. From that beginning, she and the women of the village formed Savane Rutongo, a workshop where 15 women work fulltime on the intricate embroideries, from canvas-sized pieces to wall hangings.
(more…)