‘Hand in Hand: The Artistic and Spiritual Life of Dame Werburg Welch’, William Allen Gallery, Ushaw College, Durham, UK, 6 April–29 June 2019

The celebrants stand as an assembled congregation in the William Allen Gallery, Ushaw College, facing silently towards you as you enter the exhibition and encouraging you to wander amongst them. Each figure is simply presented on a small raised plinth, each with an unobtrusive text panel. There are no barriers to impede your enjoyment of the textiles, the construction of the embroidery or the woven decoration. Each figure is dressed in an example of the designs of Dame Werburg Welch (1894–1990), skilfully worked by the hands of her fellow sisters of Stanbrook Abbey. Eighteen copes, chasubles and dalmatics are displayed. In the colours of the liturgy, they are adorned with striking orphreys and hoods. The designs are treated with restraint, blending images that are both powerful and tender. They do not overwhelm the vestments, nor would they have been a distraction to the congregation when they were in use. Instead, the messages they convey are reverential, and they are executed with radical simplicity. In 1915 Eileen Grace Welch entered the novitiate at Stanbrook Abbey, taking on the name ‘Werburg’ after the seventhcentury Anglo Saxon saint, and was given the honorary title of ‘Dame’ in line with Benedictine tradition. Art was her passion. Welch had studied art at Bournemouth and later Bristol art schools, where she excelled in life drawing. On entering Stanbrook Abbey she had expected to give up art in this contemplative and