A screening of THREADS, the documentary film telling the story of Surayia Rahman, a Bangladeshi artist, and how she transforms kantha, the traditional Bengali technique of repurposing old sarees into patchwork embroidered fabrics, into an internationally recognized art form. Today in Bangladesh kantha continues to support women’s economic opportunities and sustains artisan enterprise and the evolution of indigenous design.
 
Following the viewing of the film, there will be a conversation between the filmmaker, Cathy Stevulak, and Dr. Sanchita Saxena, a UC Berkeley scholar of labor rights in the garment industry. They will address the future of kantha embroidery and women artisans in Bangladesh, and the bigger question of how to preserve indigenous arts and create a sustainable future for artisans in the era of global fashion.
 
Watch the THREADS film trailer: https://kanthathreads.com/watch-the-film/

Sponsors

• Textile Arts Council of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
• Hearst Museum of Anthropology, UC Berkeley
• The Subir & Malini Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies, UC Berkeley
• Tracing Patterns Foundation
• Ellin Klor and Callista Jerman

 
Speakers

• Cathy Stevulak
  
• Dr. Sanchita Banerjee Saxena
  

ONLINE CONFERENCE
October 6-9, 2020

The theme of the online conference Textiles on the Move relates to the changing role, importance and significance of textiles and garments when they are moved from one particular cultural environment to another. Particular emphasis is laid on the movement of textiles and garments in Asia, and between Asia and the rest of the world. Examples, covered in the program, are the spread of the buteh/Paisley motif from India/Iran to the rest of the world, and, more in general, the exchange of textiles, and their meanings, between Southeast and South Asia, and between South Asia and Africa.

FULL PROGRAM

Organizers:
The International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden, The Netherlands, in collaboration with the Tracing Patterns Foundation in Berkeley, California, USA, and the Textile Research Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands.

 

In the month of September, TPF is supporting the Meet the Makers group helping Indonesian artisans to connect with overseas markets

COVID has caused many artisans to lose the normal outlets to sell their work. In effort to raise funds and seek new market opportunities, the Meet the Makers has organized two new initiatives:

1. Kaleidoscope – a series of recorded webinars, pairing artisans and researchers. These recordings are available for three weeks during 7 - 26 September, 2020.* All dates corresponds to 12 am Jakarta time (WIB). Donation of $5 per webinar is requested to support the artisans featured in the webinars. *Note: two webinars– those on Biboki and Savu weavings–are only available for one day!

2. Auction of selective objects through the Sidharta Auctioneer. Viewing and bids start on 18 Sept.;  Live Auction takes place on 26 Sept.

How you can support:

• VIEW webinar
• BID at the Auction (check the website after 5 Sept)
• DONATE to MtM via Tracing Patterns Foundation
• SIGN UP with Indonesian Heritage Society, MtM's local partner

In the past year, we have been working hard on developing an online library catalog for the Textile Museum library.
Click here to read about the project in detail.

The aim is create better access for students and scholars whose research may benefit from the library's 3000 plus books. Thanks to many of our donors, we have made a lot of progress. The website is now up and running. More work needs to be done to standardize the entries, cleaning up data, and scanning book covers. A student intern from the Ciputra University in Surabaya is currently helping us in this project.

Please check our in-progress work. Search for "batik" on this site: library.museumtekstiljakarta.org

“Royal Attire and Civilization in the Palace of Yogyakarta”
March 9-10, 2020

The conference is sponsored by the Royal Palace of Yogyakarta to commemorate the coronation anniversary of Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X. This wonderful initiative to explore the Javanese court culture brought together 20 scholars from different disciplines, and was attended by more than 100 people. 

The program is divided into 4 sections: history, philology, performing art and socio-culture. The Tracing Patterns Foundation's president, Dr. Sandra Sardjono was invited as a guest speaker to open the history section with a lecture, Depictions of Textiles in Ancient Java.
Click here for full program.

Our annual Newsletter is out! Please read about our activities in 2019 and plan for the coming year.

"Embracing Change, Honoring Traditions"
Yogyakarta, November 4-8, 2019

This symposium was attended by well over 150 people. Many speakers were invited as representatives of ASEAN member countries, many others were selected because of their researches that relate to ASEAN theme. The lectures ran in two parallel sessions, covering a wide range of topics of sustainability, archival and experimentation works, designing for the future, historical analysis of technique, and art history.
Click here for the full program

The venue of ATTS rotates every two years in different ASEAN member countries. ATTS 8th will take place in Malaysia.

TPF is proud to be part of the program committee and one of the partners of the Symposium

Successful Outcome
TPF-organized textile panels were held on July 18 in the beautiful pavilion of the Volkenkunde Museum. Eleven distinguished scholars presented works on different issues related to the theme, "Fibres, Loom, and Technique." Both speakers and attendants came from local areas as well as abroad, from as far as the Philippines and Indonesia. According to Philippe Peycam, Director of International Institute of Asian Studies (the organizing body of ICAS), one of the biggest contingents of ICAS attendees was the textile crowd. This tells us that we are doing something right!

Full program

 
Perfect Partnership
TPF also collaborated with the Textile Research Centre Leiden (TRC). The Centre organized and served as the local host for many textile lectures/ workshops that run alongside ICAS. All classes, including two TPF-sponsored workshops, were over-subscribed. In addition to contributing to the academic content for the ICAS and TRC programs, TPF also co-sponsored a public reception at the TRC and hosted a close gathering for the invited textile scholars.

 
Next Steps
ICAS provides a perfect international platform for textile study. This biannual conference takes place in different countries, thus opening up an opportunity to engage scholars and audience worldwide. Our next steps are: first, we want to share the outcome of this meeting in Leiden by publishing a book with the same theme as that of the textile panels. What book format and which publisher are still under discussion. Second, we aim to repeat this year's success in the next ICAS, which will take place in Kyoto. Thus, our task this coming year is to find a local institution in Kyoto with whom we can partner and plan another stimulating week of textile studies for ICAS 12 in 2021.