Pieces of history find a home

Maïr Verthuy thought the tapestry the Montreal Council of Women made to mark its centennial in 1993 should be on display, not wrapped up in a roll. And she thought Concordia University — a Canadian pioneer in Women’s Studies — would be the perfect place in which to hang it. So she made a few calls.

It didn’t take much convincing to arrange the loan.

“It was a bit like the tapestry was coming home,” says the retired Concordia Distinguished Professor Emerita, first principal of the Simone de Beauvoir Institute, and newly minted member of the Order of Canada.

Verthuy is also on the executive of the Montreal Council of Women, a non-partisan coalition of 72 organizations working to improve conditions and quality of life in the Montreal area. As it doesn’t have office space, the wall hanging was displayed only at special occasions.

“We’re very happy the tapestry has a home,” says Sandra Cohen-Rose, the council’s president. “It will be on display, and people can appreciate it.”

An event celebrating the loan will be held on International Women’s Day, March 8, in the 11th-floor atrium of the Engineering, Computer Science and Visual Arts Integrated Complex. The tapestry will hang at Concordia’s Samuel Bronfman Building on Dr-Penfield Avenue alongside another historic tapestry and several other major artworks.

The work is comprised of dozens of fabric squares, each featuring the logo of a member society of the council. It’s one-and-a-half by two metres in size, and is being placed in Plexiglas to protect it.

Cohen-Rose also says Concordia is a natural match because it established the Simone de Beauvoir Institute, a college dedicated to women’s studies of which Verthuy was the first principal, and because the university has always welcomed people from all walks of life.

When: Thursday, March 8, 2012, at 10 a.m.
Where: 11th-floor atrium of the Engineering, Computer Science and Visual Arts Integrated Complex (1515 Ste-Catherine St. W.), Sir George Williams Campus
Registration: Contact otudoson@alcor.concordia.ca or 514-848-2424, ext. 2809

Related links:
•    The centennial tapestry
•    Montreal Council of Women
•    Concordia’s Simone de Beauvoir Institute