thetis blacker temenos batik scholarship

The Temenos Academy has established an award in memory of the artist Thetis Blacker, to further the study of the art of batik. The award is administered by the Temenos Academy in association with the Batik Guild, a UK-based non-profit organization, which exists to encourage a wider appreciation and understanding of batik as a centuries-old craft which continues to meet the needs of creative artists working today. Thetis Blacker was a member of the Batik Guild.

The award, which is made every 2 years, is open to members of the Batik Guild, and other batik artists.

THETIS BLACKER (1927-2006) made a remarkable contribution to Temenos as an artist and lecturer. Her work was first featured in Temenos 4, and her ‘Phoenix Egg’, designed especially for the journal, appeared on the covers of issues 6-9. During her life-time she was regarded as the pre- eminent batik artist in the West. Her brilliantly colourful and masterfully executed dye paintings were commissioned for and exhibited in cathedrals and churches in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States. She was also a writer and the author of A Pilgrimage of Dreams (1973), an account of her own vivid dreams.

As a Churchill Fellow, Thetis Blacker studied the craft of batik in South East Asia. The purpose of the Thetis Blacker Temenos Batik Scholarship is primarily, but not exclusively, to support overseas research, study and travel in the field of batik creation.