Journeys from the Journey

EVERY STORY IS SACRED

For Kip Beardsley, weaving began as a deliberate departure from a life built around numbers, data, and precision.

With a background in accounting and public health, Beardsley spent much of his career in evaluation, science, and linear thinking. Five years ago, seeking a counterbalance, he took a sabbatical and enrolled in a weaving class. What was intended as a creative interlude became a new life.

“Weaving speaks to my linear mind, but it’s also an opportunity for expression.”

Today, through his studio, The Gentleman Weaver, Beardsley creates handwoven textiles, commissioned works, and larger installations.

His newest project, Journeys from the Journey, grew from an eight-week journey retracing and honoring the history of the Underground Railroad. The installation is inspired by that history but extends beyond it, honoring both the freedom seekers and abolitionists of the past and journeys toward freedom and liberation that continue today.

At stops along his route, Beardsley invited people to share stories of resilience, loss, struggle, transformation, and liberation. His starting principle was simple:

“Every story is sacred.”

He translated those stories into fiber, texture, color, and pattern. Rather than literally illustrating each narrative, the weaving often seeks to evoke its emotional character.

A LANDSCAPE OF FIBER AND STORY

At House of Hope, these textiles form a landscape through which visitors move.

Large woven columns resembling trees incorporate Nkyinkyim, a West African symbol of resilience through life’s trials. The trees traveled with Beardsley and were erected along his journey, becoming witnesses themselves.

That idea of witness is central to the installation. Beardsley hopes visitors will encounter another person’s experience without immediately categorizing or judging it.

“I want to hear your story instead of just judging you or instead of talking at you. I want to see you.”

For Beardsley, sharing stories creates something deeper than understanding:

“When you share your story, and I share my story, now we have our story.”

THE PRACTICE OF WITNESS

The project also changed Beardsley’s relationship with his art. Its looser, more improvisational weaving challenged the perfectionism of his earlier work and taught him to be “okay with imperfection.”

Journeys from the Journey invites visitors into that same practice: to enter a landscape of fiber and story, to pause, to witness, and to encounter another person’s journey without measuring it against their own.

“My hope is that people can stop and be present with the stories and also get a sense of what it’s like to be in a space of witness and holding”—and then take that practice “out into the world.”