Fiona Duthie :: Changes at felt :: feutre canada

Fiona Duthie, president of felt :: feutre canada, will be stepping down this December 2018 after six years of leadership. She has been a visionary leader, bringing felt artists from across Canada and around the world together to share their work through endeavours like the Canadian Felt Symposium, the upcoming exhibition, SHRINE, which will travel from the Canadian Felt Symposium in Nova Scotia, to the Craft Council of BC, the introduction of the online exhibition, as well as exhibition catalogues showcasing Canadian feltmakers’ work in 2013, 2016, 2017 and 2018.

She’s admired and known for her generous mentorship of many emerging artists as well as her commitment to quality felt arts education. Fiona has campaigned for better education and mentorship possibilities through projects like the Stella Motus Community Installation created in 2016 to fund a bursary program for the 2018 Canadian Felt Symposium.  She has awarded over a dozen scholarships for felt :: feutre canada members to participate in her online workshops.

Fiona has advanced the conversation about the role of fibre arts in the world by ensuring symposium events like the exhibitions, fashion shows and artists talks are open to the public, and that exhibition catalogues can be viewed indefinitely online.  She has used her many connections in the fibre arts world to create opportunities for profiles on Canadian feltmakers in international publications like FELT magazine (Australia), FilzFUN (Germany) and Felt Matters (International Feltmakers Association journal).

Through Fiona’s leadership and influence, the felting community has been strengthened and long-lasting relationships built. At the essence of this has been Fiona’s desire to create a supportive, creative community. A vision that guarantees that even though many Canadian feltmakers live great distances from each other, often working in isolation, they can still feel a strong kinship and unity.

The decision to step down was very difficult for Fiona. It’s hard to leave an organization she was instrumental in developing but she’s confident that whoever follows her will continue to make felt :: feutre canada a creative hub; a space that encourages artists throughout Canada to share their knowledge and love of fibre.

As the outgoing President, Fiona will maintain strong bonds with felt :: feutre canada in order to ensure a smooth transition. She will spend several months helping the new president settle in to their position.

The new president will be voted in during the annual general meeting in October 2018.