Ask the Experts: How to Put on a Show

Have you ever wanted to organize a rug hooking show? Have you felt intimidated by the process? There is no need to feel that way. I found myself organizing a show in record time—seven months. This is the story of how the Woolen Wonders Rug Exhibit in Berryville, Virginia, became a reality:

In May, 2018, I hosted our Blue Ridge Mountain Book Club at our 150-year-old Checkmate Farm home on the mountain.

The four new members who attended enjoyed a tour of our historic home. They were particularly delighted by the second-floor living room with picture windows facing a fifty-mile view towards Washington, D.C. This room, filled with rugs, yarn, wool, and frames, is where I teach students how to make Oxford punch rugs. One of the women, Elaine Dennison, noticed the rugs and asked many questions about how they were made.  Elaine has organized many of the rotating art exhibits at the Barns of Rose Hill Cultural Arts Center in Berryville, Virginia. She never knew wool hooked rugs were art. She, like many others, thought of those worn wool rugs that Grandma made as a hobby or craft.