Rug Money: How a Group of Maya Women Changed Their Lives Through Art and Innovation

About Cheryl Conway-DalyMary Anne Wise

Mary Anne Wise is a nationally recognised weaver rug hooker design teacher and curator. During multiple trips to Guatemala she was moved by the relentless poverty and lack of opportunity for Maya women. In response Mary Anne volunteered to teach a how-to rug-hooking workshop as a possible new income source for indigenous women. This single workshop eventually led to co-founding Multicolores a non-profit rug-hooking cooperative in Guatemala. Cheryl Conway-Daly spent nearly twenty years as an academic researcher at universities in Northern Ireland and England focusing on economic development and gender and equality. Her interest in working with grassroots organisations that focused on women's empowerment prompted her departure from academia leading her to Guatemala in 2009. Cheryl joined the rug-hooking project in 2013. Her ongoing commitment to helping the rug-hooking artists improve the quality of their lives and her skilled and creative management of the project have been crucial to its success.