Cité internationale de la tapisserie in Aubusson will crowdfund their next Tolkien tapestries

The Cité internationale de la tapisserie in Aubusson has announced that they will run a kickstarter campaign will be crowdfunding their next two Tolkien related tapestries, Bilbo woke up with the early Sun in his Eyes and (I am so thrilled!) Conversation with Smaug, starting on February 20th 2020 and running for 30 days. More details should be available soon.

Weaving sample for the tapestry Bilbo woke up with the early Sun in his Eyes, after JRR Tolkien. © The Tolkien Estate Ltd 1937.

Here is the press release:

Next Thursday, February 20, the Cité internationale de la tapisserie in Aubusson, France, will launch a crowdfunding operation on the Kickstarter platform, for the creation of two of the fourteen tapestries of the Tolkien wall hanging intended to enter its collections labeled "Museum of France". La Cité de la tapisserie is continuing to create thirteen
wall tapestries and a knotted carpet from original illustrations by the famous author of The Lord of the Rings and Bilbo the Hobbit, JRR Tolkien, as part of the operation “Aubusson weaves Tolkien”. With eight weavings produced by the workshops and factories of Aubusson-Felletin, more than half of the tapestries have seen the light, four of which were exhibited in the large exhibition that the Bibliothèque nationale de France devoted to Tolkien until February 16th. The works are visible in the exhibition of the Cité de la tapisserie as and when "the cutting of the loom" ceremonies and the first weaving supported by the crowdfunding operation will be on display during the summer 2020.

Launching this crowdfunding campaign is a way to benefit from the positive momentum generated by the Tolkien exhibitions in Oxford in 2018 and even more at the Bibliothèque nationale de France in 2019-2020 and reach their enthusiastic public: the crowdfunding operation represents a great opportunity to communicate around the "Aubusson weaves Tolkien" project. To participate in the adventure of the realization of this monumental wall hanging, by supporting the weavings of two emblematic tapestries of the Hanging, it is also to open the possibility of extending the Tolkien Hanging by weaving one or two new tapestries as the Tolkien Family wishes, according to the results of the crowdfunding campaign. And with that, supporting the production chain provided by private workshops and factories of the department of Creuse, with their great know-how.

2 mythical scenes from Bilbo the Hobbit
The weaving of Bilbo woke up with the early Sun in his Eyes (accessible to the public on an ad hoc basis in the weaving workshop of the Cité de la tapisserie) will begin in March and will be revealed in the summer 2020. Conversation with Smaug will close the operation and be cut from the loom one year later. The funding target is set at 100,000 euros. The campaign will run for 30 days and end on March 20th, 2020.

Find the project page on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/c ... e/aubusson-weaves-tolkien