Margaret Sutherland

1922, Calgary, Alberta, Canada–2017

Margaret Sutherland first learned to weave at the Banff School of Fine Arts, taking courses with Mary Snyder (1973) and Douglas Motter (1974).

In 1980/81, Sutherland was included in Fibrations, “the province’s first juried contemporary fibre art exhibition,” juried by Glen Allison, Ann Lambert and Mariette Rousseau-Vermette for the University of Alberta (later travelling to the Nickle Arts Museum). Throughout the 1980s, Sutherland undertook numerous large-scale architectural weaving commissions in Alberta, including tapestries for Sun Life Place in Edmonton and Sun Life Plaza in Calgary. Sutherland, who lived for a time in the bush outside Rocky Mountain House, nurtured a deep appreciation of nature, a sensibility reflected in The Seed.