Earlier this week, the major tapestry commissioned by Lincoln College and designed by artist Hurvin Anderson to celebrate our 600th anniversary was cut off the loom at a special ceremony held at Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh.
The impressive six-metre-long tapestry took a team of five weavers over seven months to create. Hurvin's design features a long table focusing on the College’s dining tradition and its role in bringing students, tutors and alumni together. Key details represent the four academic divisions of the University – humanities, mathematical, physical and life sciences, medical sciences and social sciences, alongside other sporting and social aspects of College life.
Hurvin said, "I spent quite a bit of time in the College, talking to students and trying to get to understand the feel of the place, what it feels like to live a contemporary life in a place full of such history and how to sum all that up in a drawing."
Susan Harrison, Development Director, attended the cutting off ceremony. She said, "‘It has been a privilege to work with Hurvin Anderson and the Dovecot Studios on this commission for Lincoln’s 600th anniversary. In particular, I enjoyed seeing how Hurvin’s conversations with our students made their way into his design, and how Naomi and the expert weavers interpreted all the light and texture of his brushmarks through their skilled mixing of yarn. The tapestry highlights Lincoln’s academic and collegiate spirit, and is an artwork of great beauty that will greatly enhance the Langford Room."
The tapestry process
Following a series of visits over a period of two years (2022-2024) by Dovecot’s Director and Master
Weaver and by Hurvin Anderson - who stayed in the College to absorb its architecture and culture - the
tapestry location, size and design were agreed.
The Dovecot team started to create the cartoon and to weave the tapestry in January 2025, which was then cut off the loom on 9 September.
The stages involved in creating the tapestry included: the sampling of colour and approach at the
agreed scale; warping the large loom to the relevant dimensions; and tracing the information and marks
from the design to the cartoon for the loom. The cartoon was held behind the loom while the design was
inked onto the warps.
Conversations between Hurvin and the weavers were a vital part of the process. Hurvin explained, "Coming into the weaving process I was quite green. I was curious to see how literal the translation of the drawing to tapestry would be. As with any translation, there is the hand of the translator and it is exciting to see how the brushstrokes are individually interpreted without the essence of the original drawing changing. It's really very cleaver and I feel priveleged to have seen the weavers at work. It's been a great collaborative exercise between each weaver, as well as with me and the College."
Hurvin Anderson
Hurvin Anderson is a British artist whose work explores key painting styles, shifting from figuration to abstraction, and experimenting with the classic genres of still life, landscape and portraiture. Trained at Wimbledon School of Art and the Royal College of Art, he was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2017 and elected to the Royal Academy in 2023. He will hold his first major solo exhibition at Tate Britain from 26 March – 23 August 2026
This is the first tapestry created by Hurvin. He said, "I was interested in this project initially because the process was so unknown to me. I think as a painter, it's intriguing to see how the brushstrokes, palette and rhythms of the painting can be recreated and reinterpreted along the way. I find the idea of facsimile a recurrent theme in my work, and this project is taking it that bit further I suppose."
Dovecot Studios
Dovecot Studios is a landmark gallery and museum for contemporary art, design and textiles in Edinburgh,
built around a world-renowned tapestry studio. Established in 1912, Dovecot continues a century-long
heritage of collaboration with international artists to make exceptional handwoven tapestries and gun-tufted
rugs.