Hope for Home and The Royal School of Needlework Champion Biodiversity 

Through Art and Awareness

Combining art and advocacy, Hope for  Home in partnership with The  Royal School of Needlework (RSN)  are championing biodiversity, using needle and thread to craft powerful messages about the importance of protecting the natural world. 

‘Fragile Threads’, is an innovative and collaborative partnership programme made possible thanks to a £247,000 grant to The  Royal School of Needlework from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and aims to spotlight endangered species, celebrate ecosystems, raising awareness and inspiring action to preserve the planet's extraordinary biological diversity.  

Hope for Home will work with around 60 socially isolated unpaid carers of people with advanced dementia who are being cared for at home to create simple nature-inspired embroidery pieces. We will work with the designer appointed by the RSN with a small panel of carers and people with dementia being cared for at home across the UK to help advise,   and later to test the new sewing kits  before  they are sent out across the country.

These pieces will contribute to an exciting display for our final exhibition. Expert support will be provided virtually and by telephone. It is hoped that this creative needlework will contribute to the wellbeing of these carers and allow them some time for relaxation away from their caring responsibilities   

Hope for Home is very excited about this new partnership, and about this  very innovative and interesting creative project. We hope that  many unpaid carers will wish to engage and take part in the stitching,  which will take place during 2026. We anticipate that anyone actively engaged in caring  and supporting someone with dementia living at home will wish to join in. For example, friends, family, including grandchildren, children, spouses, nieces and nephews . 

This project is offered entirely free to all those who wish to take part. 

Embroidery is an art form celebrated for its intricate beauty and throughout history has served as a dynamic medium for environmental storytelling. Unique and rich embroidery traditions have used stitching to record events, impart knowledge, and make powerful statements. Fragile Threads places creative self-expression and the fragility of the natural world side by side. Embroiderers have always looked to the natural world for inspiration, and their artwork has recorded the movement of species around the world, mapping their importance to global social and economic networks. However, 37% of species in the UK have experienced population decline over the past 50 years, and globally one million species are thought to be at risk.   

Partnerships in this project also include several other organisations- Action for Conservation, Global Generation, Intoart and  QEST.

As part of the initiative, the Royal School of Needlework will also host a symposium and an exhibition towards the end of the programme.  

 WELCOME TO OUR NEW CHAIR! 

We are delighted to welcome David Sprackling OBE, who joined us as our new Chair last autumn!