The Guiding Textile Artists and Their Vision

Kate Smith

Since 1979 Kate has been weaving and teaching continuously at the original Marshfield School of Weaving, Eaton Hill Textile Works' School of Traditional Handweaving, and now at the reopened Marshfield School of Weaving. She has woven fabrics for many museums and furniture conservation departments including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Colonial Williamsburg, The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the JP Getty Museum.

Norman Kennedy

Norman learned his trade from the last of the professional handweavers in his home town of Aberdeen, Scotland in the 1950’s. He was, for five years, Master Weaver in Colonial Williamsburg before settling in Vermont. In 1976 he founded the Marshfield School of Weaving to maintain and continue the standards of textile production handed down from past generations. In 2003, Norman was awarded the NEA National Heritage Fellowship for his work in preserving the traditions of Scottish ballads and handweaving.

The School

The Marshfield School of Weaving was founded in 1976 by Norman Kennedy to teach the methods of textile production as practiced by professional handweavers of rural Britain and America in the 18th & 19th centuries.

At the Marshfield School of Weaving students set the pace and direction of their unique learning experience. Small classes of 2 - 5 students allow for individual attention in a relaxed and beautiful setting. Here in our restored 200 year old barn, with its large windows looking out on the rolling Vermont landscape, is the largest collection of working barn frame looms in the country. The looms, wheels and related equipment that have been brought together and restored to working order are worthy of a museum. They continue to be used to preserve and perpetuate the same standards of quality that were valued by our forbearers. This distinctive mission of the school has provided students over the years with rare sense of continuity with the past. Our extensive library, dye studio and collection of historic textiles adds to the depth of resources available to both the beginning and advanced student.

Norman Kennedy is widely recognized for his contribution in passing on this important knowledge and he is a vital link in a chain of folk knowledge that was nearly broken. Kate Smith, who began studying with Norman in 1979, is carrying this tradition forward as she works with the next generation of handweavers, spinners and dyers. When Kate is not teaching, her passion and commitment to 18th & 19th c. textiles continues to inspire ongoing experimentation and research into historical methods that are nearly forgotten.