Our Mission

To promote the art and craft of traditional rug hooking, through participation and sharing of information; and, in the process, preserve it for posterity.

The Rug Hooking Guild of Nova Scotia (RHGNS)  is built on a sense of community and passion. The Board of Directors manages the activities of the Rug Hooking Guild of Nova Scotia according to its by-laws. Executive members are elected for a two year term at the Annual General Meeting.

There are several exceptions: The Archivist and the Magazine Editor may be reappointed. The Teacher’s Branch President is elected at the Teacher’s Branch AGM.  The School Director(s) take office the last day of Rug School, having been approved by the Board of Directors of the RHGNS at least one year prior to taking office.

Supporting Rug Hookers in the Maritimes and beyond, since 1979

 

 

 

Right: Hooked by Ruth Downing

Great Beginnings

The following information is from an article, “From the Archives!! Our Beginnings!!’, written by Barbara Baker-Dykens in the RHGNS Newsletter, February 1997.

Rug hooking has flourished in Nova Scotia for generations. According to our archives, Edna Withrow, from Ottawa, influenced rug hooking in Nova Scotia throughout the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. Through the Nova Scotia Department of Handcrafts, Mrs. Withrow taught classes in several areas: Cape Breton, Halifax, the South Shore and the Annapolis Valley.

Rug hooking has flourished in Nova Scotia for generations. According to our archives, Edna Withrow, from Ottawa, influenced rug hooking in Nova Scotia throughout the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. Through the Nova Scotia Department of Handcrafts, Mrs. Withrow taught classes in several areas: Cape Breton, Halifax, the South Shore and the Annapolis Valley.

In October 1977, Joan Moshimer conducted a one day workshop entitled “Hooking and Shading Featuring Birds” in New Ross. One hundred and twenty craftspeople attended this workshop. Eager for more knowledge, craftspeople from the Valley and South Shore area attended a rug school in Windham, Maine in 1977 and 1978.

It was at this time that Phyllis Best, Helen Giles and Lorraine Rand met with Doris Eaton and Nancy Wolff and decided that it was time to form a Guild in Nova Scotia. At a meeting in the Forties on April 2, 1979 the motion to form the Rug Hooking Guild of Nova Scotia was passed unanimously. The initial aims and purposes of the guild were “to hold rug camps and workshops and get information, requirements and qualifications regarding exhibitions, shows etc. Also to help groups get information regarding teachers for specific topics”.