More (Again) About Hanging Textile Works

Curate (verb) – to select, organize, and look after the items in (a collection or exhibition).

This is a further instalment in my series of posts about my experience as curator of Beneath the Southern Sky travelling exhibition of textile works. Once again, my focus is on preparing textile works to ensure that they are displayed in an attractive and professional manner.

Back in December, I wrote about the importance of positioning hanging sleeves with clearance from both the tops and the sides of the textile work so that the hanging apparatus is hidden from view. Of course, it helps if you know what kind of hanging system is being employed. The hooks at The Q Gallery were bulkier than I had encountered in other galleries and sometimes peeked out:

Sometimes this issue can be addressed on the go by pinning along the fullness at the top of the sleeve so that the rod sits lower. I don’t have an “after” shot of this particular quilt but this is the effect that you are aiming for – no hooks in sight!
Today I am looking at hanging sleeves again. I have discovered that, depending upon the position of the hanging sleeve and the amount of “pouf” or slack in the sleeve, there can be lots of variation as to where the textile work sits on the rod. Here are a couple of examples:

Such variation is not a big deal when the textile works are hung individually and can be adjusted up or down. The exhibit looked fabulous at the Q:

The exhibit is now travelling to AQS QuiltWeek in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA 13-16 March 2013 and Paducah, Kentucky, USA 24-27 April.

AQS uses the Hangups system for hanging quilts. The system uses what has been described to me as “a sheer rod on steroids” (it is thicker and stronger than the rod you would use to hang sheer curtains at home) that hooks to a hook/cord system so each piece looks like it is suspended in front of the black drapes.

Because the Beneath the Southern Sky textiles works are relatively narrow at 40cm (15 1/2in) wide, it is likely that multiple works will be hung on a single rod. To ensure the works hang evenly, prepping the exhibit for the US shows involved some significant sleeve tweaking.

Sometimes the entire sleeve had to be completely repositioned but mostly all that was required was a line of tacking across the top of the sleeve. For example: