21 October proved to be another significant day in the Scottish Diaspora Tapestry’s long friendship with Veere in the Netherlands, as Gordon Prestoungrange and his family were invited to return to the town’s museum.
Veere were pioneers in stitching six panels early in the Scottish Diaspora Tapestry project, and subsequently went on to exhibit the entire artwork twice in their museum, based in the historic “Scots House”. Like many a stitcher, seeing their panels head off to join the complete exhibition in Scotland was bittersweet – so the community in Veere resolved to stitch their panels all over again! Suitably framed (and with a few subtle variations for the keen eye to detect!) these will now hang publicly in Veere for ever. This follows their exhibition in the Battle of Prestonpans Museum earlier this year.
But that was not the end of Veere’s ambition! They wanted to go one better, to give their visitors an opportunity to see the entire tapestry via a digital touchscreen. Building from the existing multilingual APP, the new software adds Dutch and German translations to the English, Gaelic, French and Italian content already in place. The Mayor of Veere and Gordon Prestoungrange unveiled the museum’s new screen unit, whilst Veere’s traditional piper played along. A grand crowd of stitchers – both those who worked on the originals and those who replicated them – came along for the celebration, the whole occasion being organised by the CEO of Veere’s Museum, Wim Meijer.
The new digital software developed in Veere will be available for worldwide use at appropriate locations soon.
