From the very beginning, the New Brunswick Mat Registry (NBMR) has benefitted from the generosity of three distinguished individuals who served as Chairpersons of our organization. They are the late Honorable Viola Léger who left us in 2023, Ms. Susan Vida Judah and Honorable Herménégilde Chiasson. We are deeply grateful for their continuous support of the NBMR mission and for having recognized this mode of creation as a valuable part of the province’s heritage. During the launch ceremony of the Website Hands, Heart and Mind – The Art of Hooked Mats in New Brunswick held on June 14, 2025, in Moncton, Mr. Chiasson spoke to the many guests present. He emphasized the importance of popular and collective history as represented in the collection of hooked mats in New Brunswick documented by the NBMR as well as the magnificent work of the people and organizations involved in this initiative. Enclosed [...]

It is truly an honour to be invited to write the inaugural blog on the website of the New Brunswick Mat Registry to coincide with the launch, on June 14, 2025, of its virtual exhibition, Hands, Heart and Mind—The Art of Hooked Mats in New Brunswick. It features over 600 mats, 25 years old and older, dating back to the 1800s, which were documented at 28 registration events held in 14 communities across the province. In 2010, when I was writing a weekly Art Talk column for the Moncton Times & Transcript, Judy Morison, Dorchester, the registry’s co-chair inquired if I would be interested in covering their second registration day event so I could see how the process worked. I had a moment of hesitation. My mandate was to review exhibitions at local art galleries, which did include contemporary hooked rugs, but registering historical hooked mats to develop a [...]