Strabane and District Women Together make their mark at the Alley

The Strabane and District Women's Together group crossed the finish line on a one year project with the unveiling and presentation of a wall hanging to the Alley Arts and Conference Centre.

The unique piece of needlework was designed by local artist and designer Janet Maxwell and will be put on permanent display within the new arts Centre in the coming weeks. The piece called "All the world is a stage", took over 100 hours alone in the design and planning process before the Women's together group started their needlework. The actual piece then took months of hard work and dedication to complete, with the stunning wall hanging finally being handed over by Bell Hogg, representative of the Women Together group to the Alley Arts Centre on Friday.

The wall hanging was accepted on behalf of the Alley Theatre and Strabane District council by Chairman of Strabane District Council, Cllr Thomas Kerrigan, who was delighted to meet the group and accept the wall hanging, which includes images of actors, singers, literary and cultural figures that will use the new Alley arts Centre over the coming generations.

Janet Maxell stated "As the designer I would like to thank all the hard work put in by the members of Women Together, and I am delighted that the wall hanging will find a suitable home in the new Theatre."

This is the third wall hanging the group has presented to this highly publicised regeneration complex, with two wall hangings already on display within Strabane Library and the Surestart play area.

Nathan Flatman, Marketing Officer for the Alley Theatre stated "The Alley is delighted to receive such an inspirational theatrical wall hanging, and we salute the hard work, commitment and support shown by Janet Maxwell, Bell Hogg and the Women's together group."

At the presentation ceremony, Bell Hogg recognised the inspiration and hard work put in by Janet Maxwell on this project, and on behalf of the group presented Janet with a bouquet of flowers and leads a deafening round of applause from the group.

Janet Maxwell and the Women Together group are now looking forward to completing two more wall hangings which have been designed for two local community groups in Killen and Killeter.