A major new tapestry commission is underway as part of ATW’s 50th anniversary celebrations.

The Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) and ATW are coming together to commission a groundbreaking new tapestry designed by Maree Clarke. Designed for ANAM's home at the restored South Melbourne Town Hall, the tapestry draws on the cultural significance of river reeds, traditionally gifted to travellers as a gesture of friendship and safe passage. Through imagery of waterways, river reeds, and visualisations of the sounds they produce, Maree Clark's design explores welcome, connection to Country and cultural continuity.

Measuring 7 x 3 metres, Rhythm of The Reeds - Welcome to Country will require more than 6,500 hours of weaving using 250 specially dyed colours of Victorian wool. The project is being led by Amy Cornall, with the weaving team of Sue Carstairs, Saffron Gordon, Pamela Joyce, David Pearce, Emma Sulzer and Caroline Tully, together with ATW's dyeing specialists and support staff.

As the artist explains: “This tapestry explores themes of welcome, safe passage, and cultural continuity, expressed through movement, rhythm, and sound. It draws together imagery of waterways, river reeds viewed under a microscope, and the music they produce, foregrounding the deep connections between Country, material knowledge, and cultural practice. River reeds were traditionally gifted to people travelling through Country as a gesture of friendship and an assurance of safe passage. In this work, the river reed becomes both a cultural reference and a metaphor — carrying sound, knowledge, and connection across landscapes and generations. Installed in the foyer of ANAM, the tapestry functions as a threshold work — welcoming visitors and setting a tone of care, respect, and belonging. It acknowledges the cultural significance of arrival and passage, inviting audiences to enter the space with an awareness of Country and the relationships that hold it.”

This is the second tapestry ATW has created in collaboration with Maree, following the 2025 tapestry Welcome to Country - now you see me: seeing the invisible for the new Footscray hospital.

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