Skip to content

Unlocking Lockdown

Unlocking Lockdown was a community-based arts project organised by Sewing Café Lancaster.

The closing date for entries for the exhibition has now passed, and the exhibition itself will take place 31st Jan-12th Feb 2022, at the Storey, Meeting House Lane, Lancaster.

Although we are no longer looking for entries for this exhibition, please use our ideas as inspiration for your own art work.

The Unlocking Lockdown panels are beautiful and inspirational. Please do come along to the Storey and see them.

The original brief was as follows:

The Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns have brought hardship and challenges to all of us in different ways and to varying degrees. In the midst of these tough times, we hope there were some positives too, such as people working together to support one another, perhaps discovering new strengths/skills in themselves and the world around them.

This project aims to explore and share the ways in which you got through lockdown. Sewing Café invites you to document these in a series of embroidered panels with key words expressing your experiences; these will be accompanied by short scripts. Together they will form part of an exhibition, which we hope to display in Lancaster Public Library.

We are looking at ways in which you ‘survived’ lockdown, and anything in particular that helped you such as:

  •       How did you get through the days, either at work or home?
  •       Did you learn anything new?
  •       How did other people help you?
  •       What sort of things did you/do you still enjoy doing?
  •       Anything that made the lockdown easier.

The above questions may be helpful in getting started. 

You can take part by;

  • Making an embroidered panel, with key words about your experience and a short piece for display in the scripts for the exhibition;
  • Make an embroidered panel with key words only;
  • Write a few words and someone else can make the embroidered panel for you;
  • Make an embroidered panel for someone else who is submitting words only.

You can make as many panels as you wish.

Please find the templates for the individual textile panels here. They are themed on Lancaster and Morecambe as you will see from the images on them. 

For more information about the embroidered panel specifications, please click herewas