Arraiolos, Portugal.Last Tuesday, we had a busy and very interesting day at the TRC, and I suspect we are going to have many more of these!
We have been host to a group from Portugal who are setting up a textile institute in Arraiolos, a city which lies about one hour drive from Lisbon, Portugal. The visitors were Filipe Rocha da Silva (artist), Cristina Maria Barrocas Dias (chemist, University of Évora), Rui Lobo, director of the Centro Interpretativo do Tapete de Arraiolos (CITA), and Silvia Pinto, the mayor of Arraiolos. It was a group with deliberately diverse backgrounds, all of whom are pushing to bring back textiles to the historic town of Arraiolos.
More specifically, they are particularly interested in the famous embroidered carpets (Tapete de Arraiolos) from the town that have been made there for over five hundred years. In the 20th century the production of these floor coverings just about died out and there is now a movement to bring them back, both as historic items and in a new (commercially viable) form. In fact, Rui Lobo is writing the entry on the Arraiolas embroidered floor coverings in volume 4 of the Bloomsbury World Encyclopedia of Embroidery, written and edited under the aegis of the TRC.
Part of an Arraiolos carpet.They have a building for the recently opened Arraiolos carpet and rug museum, which is fitted out with gallery space, depots, etc. In addition, the local municipality has another, very large building they want to use to bring people to Arraiolos. One of the ideas for this building is to use it for modern textile art, as well as for the teaching about textiles. Their ideas and plans coincide well with those of the TRC and that was the main reason for their visiting Leiden. From our side, we therefore introduced the work of the TRC, our methodology, the collection, how it it used, and the TRC’s textile reference collection.
A few days ago, as we reported before, we were in Kortrijk (Belgium) and It is worth noting that both Kortrijk and the town of Arraiolos are historical textile centres and are interested in promoting and building upon their textile history and, specifically, creating a reference collection that can be handled for educational purposes and take away some of the strain on a museum (preservation) collection. The TRC, also established in a historical textile clity, can perhaps help with. More about this subject in a another blog.
Anyway, we spent six hours around a table with tea/coffee and lots of food (local French bakery), discussing what we are doing, Erasmus+ and EU funding, what our Portuguese friends are doing and want to do, and how we can work together. Their analytical laboratory seems to be amazing and we will certainly be welcoming their advice and working together to make a good, practical textile laboratory here in Leiden.
Impression of the talks between TRC staff and the delegation from Arraiolos, 31January 2023.We were also talking about them sending students to Leiden to learn more about the creation of a reference collection and all it involves. In addition, we showed them around the TRC’s exhibition that is on the theme of Asian, African and European textiles and more specifically the stories behind six types of East and West African textiles and garments.
A group from the TRC will be going to Lisbon in two weeks time to attend a weekend course on diversity and inclusion. I will be staying on a few days more and will be going to Arraiolos with Filipe Rocha da Silva to talk further about the ideas we have been mulling over here at the TRC and to do further work with Rui Lobo on the embroideries in the CITA collection.
Although over the last few years online meetings have meant work continues and travelling is not as essential, having the chance to talk face-to-face and the opportunity to exchange thoughts and ideas personally is so important. Inspiration can come in many forms and often from unexpected comments!
HE The Ambassador of Yemen to the Netherlands, Mrs Sahar Ghanem, at the TRC on 31st January 2023, holding an embroidered Yemeni woman's dress (TRC 1997.0213).The Portuguese meeting finished at 16.00 and then 30 minutes later our next visitor arrived, Mrs. Sahar Ghanem, the Yemeni Ambassador, The Hague. The TRC has a collection of over 200 Yemeni textiles and garments and the Ambassador had heard about us and the collection from various sources. She wanted to talk about how to make Yemeni dress more well-known, to function as a source of inspiration for young fashion designers, and indeed, to strengthen this form of cultural heritage and to give it a future.
We discussed various plans, including actual and digital exhibitions, as well as bringing groups of Yemeni women living in the Netherlands to the TRC in order to talk, discuss and expand upon the stories behind our pieces. We are really looking forward to these developments.
Coincidentally, Mrs. Nataya Archjananun, the wife of the Thai Ambassador, visited the TRC last week and we were discussing ways of making Asian textiles more well-known and how some of the embassies in The Hague can work with the TRC to push textiles and dress and give our work more prominence as well. More about these plans in due course.
What is certain is that more and more people and groups have recognised the value of textiles, garments, accessories and the stories behind them, and are pushing for far more visibility for this essential part of our joint cultural heritage. Interesting days ahead!
Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, 3 February 2023
