“My first trip to Peru was with my friend, an anthropologist, in 1980. It was then that I had my first interaction with people who were not citified and didn’t have the same orientation to the twentieth century that I did. Something was awakened in me that made me think about life differently. Maybe I was a Peruvian weaver in a past life.”
So began Virginia Glenn’s love affair with the Peruvian people and its weavers. On that initial trip, she met with a weaver who explained the meaning and significance of her textile designs. Virginia’s own exploration of weaving started in 1978 when she took her first workshop. Her love of weaving and everything fiber-related has continued to this day through her participation in many workshops, seminars, and weaving guilds, including the Reno Fiber Guild, Telarana (Phoenix), and the Arizona Desert Weavers and Spinners Guild. Weaving has become her therapy, meditation, and source of relaxation.
Virginia came to Andean Textile Arts several years ago with a substantial commitment to the education field. After two years studying chemistry and Spanish at the Universidad Catolica de Puerto Rico, she transferred to the University of Southern California where she was awarded both a bachelor’s and PhD in special education. She taught bilingual and special education classes in Los Angeles for twelve years and later became an elementary school principal in South Lake Tahoe for twenty years. Her community involvement includes founding the South Lake Tahoe Family Resource Center and participating in Soroptimist International South Lake Tahoe, along with membership in other community service volunteer organizations both in Phoenix and South Lake Tahoe.
In 2010, Virginia visited Peru with Andean Textile Arts and attended the first Tinkuy gathering of weavers, organized by the Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco (CTTC). Afterwards, she reached out to ATA to see if anyone had categorized the woven designs she saw demonstrated and displayed in the CTTC communities’ textiles. This email led to Virginia’s joining the ATA education committee and eventually joining the ATA board. Virginia brings a myriad of skills and interests to ATA. These include her fluent Spanish language skills, community volunteering and leadership experience, blog and grant writing, and of course, her love, enthusiasm, and curiosity about anything Andean! And let’s not forget her great sense of humor. She is presently chair of the education committee, a participant on the grant committee, has facilitated the Andean Book Club, and has provided translation services for grant requests and young weavers’’ interviews. She looks forward to learning more about unique Bolivian weaving techniques and designs, especially as they compare with Peruvian textiles.
ATA has given Virginia a vehicle for helping to contribute to the world in ways that she knows are solid, researched, valid, and where nothing is wasted. Through ATA, she knows that her efforts are well spent. And as an extra bonus, she loves getting to know the individual weavers and seeing all the richness in their lives. As she said at the end of this interview, “I get SO much!”
Work and community involvement are not Virginia’s whole life. She has been married to Norm Glenn for forty-one years. She met him forty-eight years ago on a video tape dating service when she was living in California and feeling sorry for herself as she found herself alone for the evening on her birthday. They have been partners ever since in their love of travel, collecting of special treasures, and in caring for family members. They split their time between South Lake Tahoe and Phoenix, where they go to get away from the winter snows.