Brecon’s Theatr Brycheiniog recently hosted a highly successful exhibition featuring The Red Dress, a spectacular international embroidery project involving nearly 400 artists.

Started in 2009, contributions to the project continued until 2023, and the dress has since toured internationally, with stops in Washington State, USA, and Ireland before arriving in Brecon in September. It is now set to travel to the Netherlands and Australia.

The Red Dress centres on a human figure, its fabric swirling over a large area to display embroidery ranging from traditional stitchwork handed down through generations of women to contributions from refugees and people reflecting on lost homes. Participants included professional embroiderers as well as individuals discovering creativity and needlework for the first time.

The dress was the centrepiece of an exhibition titled Resilience, flanked by three other display figures created by local artists. One, the Community Shawl curated by Emma Bevan, is another collaborative effort: 120 women contributed squares telling stories of community, tradition, and skills in Wales. Contributors ranged from students to residents at a care home in Penpergwm, outside Abergavenny, each square featuring elements of red. Another community project used the theme of red shoes to explore memory and narrative.

Red was a prominent colour in the dress and supporting pictures displayed by Carol Kay, but while visually striking, the exhibition also conveyed harsh realities. The work highlights the staggering number of women murdered each year, often by family or partners. Black ribbons hanging from the dress bear the names of 100 women, alongside a roll listing when, where, and by whom these killings occurred.

While Carol Kay’s pieces reveal the tragedies confronting ordinary women, Kerri Thomas’ work celebrates the achievements of women artists, challenging the historical lack of recognition in the art world.

Complementing the visual displays, Mary Wrenn choreographed and performed a ballet addressing femicide. Filmed in the Chapel in Abergavenny, the performance ended with red ribbons falling gracefully to the ground, symbolising both beauty and loss.

The exhibition, held in the theatre’s upstairs gallery, proved extremely popular, attracting nearly 2,000 visitors in a week. A talk by Red Dress creator Kirstie Macleod sold out, with attendees purchasing every copy of her book. The Community Shawl grew from a nurse’s cape from Pen y Fal, while the play Siol, telling the story of two women connected to the hospital, was packed for every performance.