SLIG 2018 Theme: Ancestral Tapestries

The Fruit and Vegetable Market
designed by Zeger Jacob van Helmont and Augustin Coppens
woven by Urbanus Leyniers; Wikimedia Commons

Tapestries have been used for centuries to tell stories, warm or decorate walls, and celebrate special occasions. 

They are uniquely woven with solid vertical (warp) yarns that don’t show and horizontal, non-continuous (weft) yarns creating the pattern in a way that allows the final design to show on both sides. One can only begin to imagine the detailed effort required to manage the multiple colors woven into the tapestry that creates each part of the story.  

I somehow imagine my heritage being much like a tapestry -- woven of the bits and pieces, successes and failures, special events and challenges, celebrations and cultural traditions from each of my ancestor’s lives. While my personal tapestry may be unique, just like the market scene shown above it naturally shares common threads with many others.

This theme, Ancestral Tapestries, will be woven throughout SLIG 2018 into keynote addresses, special events, contests, and other activities.  While it is but a backdrop to the academic program we come to attend, it will hopefully provide occasional moments to celebrate, study, and explore the threads we have in common, as well as the unique heritages from which we descend.

I look forward to seeing you at SLIG!

Peg Ivanyo, director