Kids explore ikat-dyeing in the Textile Learning Center

Enjoy a family-friendly festival featuring Central Asian music and food as well as hands-on art and textile activities on Saturday, February 12, 12-4 p.m. Visitors can:

• Take part in Central Asian dance with the Silk Road Dance Company, including a huge dancing dragon inspired by Uzbek legends
• Add Central Asian flare to their outfit by creating a kalpak—or high-crowned hat—and wearing it throughout the festival
• Weave their own ikat textile on a pre-warped loom, making an original fabric to take home
• Explore the exhibition Colors of the Oasis: Central Asian Ikats with a family guide
• Enjoy tea and refreshments

All activities and demonstrations are free and no reservations are required!

Ceremonial mantles, or cloaks, were sometimes cut into pieces and distributed as gifts by the Tlingit, Tsimshian, and Haida tribes of the Northwest Coast—resulting in creative re-imaginations of the prized cloth such as this vest.

2011 – January 8, 2012) presents ingenious examples of repurposed textiles from around the world. These historic examples complement the major spring exhibition, Green: the Color and the Cause (April 16 -September 11, 2011). Today the word “green” is as likely to refer to eco-consciousness as the color itself. Playing with green’s symbolism and often incorporating recycled materials, artists from around the world are responding to the environment. Green will showcase the art of these contemporary makers, presenting their work alongside historical precedents from the museum’s collection.

SECOND LIVES: THE AGE-OLD ART OF RECYCLING TEXTILES
February 4, 2011 – January 8, 2012

Long before vintage fashion boutiques were in vogue, artisans found ways to repurpose precious handmade textiles. Throughout history and across cultures, textiles were so valuable that worn and threadbare fabrics were seldom simply discarded.

Second Lives features 18 objects from The Textile Museum’s permanent collection that illustrate the different forms repurposing textiles has taken around the world. Objects on view date from the 16th through the 20th centuries and include patchwork hangings from Uzbekistan, India and Iran, textiles woven with recycled fiber from Japan and the American Southwest, and garments constructed from discarded religious textiles from the Pacific Northwest coast and Turkey. Each object embodies layers of meaning and social significance.

Luxurious garments communicate wealth and status, and when they can no longer be worn, cultures have found ways to reuse them. A panel from a Qing dynasty (1644-1912) Chinese dragon robe, a prestigious garment requiring two to three years of labor to complete, is included in this exhibition as a wall hanging.

While some textiles are valued for the labor involved, others are valued for the stories they tell. Two finely woven velvet panels from 16^th-century Persia found their way to Ottoman Turkey, where Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent (1494-1566) used them to embellish his tent. Taken from Turkey to Poland in the 17^th century, they were incorporated into a noble family’s sled blanket, used until the 1920s.

Second Lives: the Age-Old Art of Recycling Textiles is organized by Lee Talbot, Associate Curator, Eastern Hemisphere Collections.

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GREEN: THE COLOR AND THE CAUSE
April 16 – September 11, 2011

Green: the Color and the Cause will feature original contemporary works by 32 international fiber artists, ranging from stitched canvas to sculpture. These works are presented in conjunction with 13 historical pieces from The Textile Museum’s permanent collection that explore how cultures across the world have captured and interpreted the color green through textile art.

Green is the third in a series of Textile Museum exhibitions exploring the cultural and artistic significance of specific colors in textile art; it follows Red and Blue. The exhibition also provides a forum for contemporary fiber artists to contribute to the global conversation about the environment. “We are excited to inspire reflection on environmental concerns facing us today through the artwork in Green” says Textile Museum Director Maryclaire Ramsey. “This is such an important conversation, one uniting people all over the world. And it can be informed by looking at the cross-cultural significance of the color green historically.”

To assemble the group of artists represented in Green, The Textile Museum issued a call for entry to contemporary fiber artists across the country and around the globe. Exhibition co-curators Rebecca A.T. Stevens and Lee Talbot reviewed more than 1,000 works of art submitted by nearly 300 artists. From this group, the co-curators selected 32 contemporary artists—representing 18 U.S. states and 6 countries—to participate in the exhibition.

The artwork in Green: the Color and the Cause will address multiple themes, including:

• Connections between Man and Nature
• Water: its importance to the natural, and manmade, world
• Life Cycle: nature as symbols of life cycle stages—birth, growth and decay
• Recycling: creating new art forms from recycled materials
• Green as a Color: the human perception of and associations with this color

For the first time in its 85-year history, The Textile Museum will present two site-specific installations as part of this exhibition: a handmade paper sculpture of the ecosystem of coastal New Jersey that emulates the ebb and flow of an important estuary (Estuary: Moods and Modes, 2007, Nancy Cohen), and a lace-covered arbor embedded with grass seed, installed in the museum’s garden, that will sprout, mature and die during the period the exhibition is on view (Arbor Lace, 2002, Michele Brody).

Shape of Green II, 2009 Shigeo Kubota Nylon; assembled

Although united in theme and color, the objects on view in the exhibition are diverse in structure and size. For her Hothouse Flowers, artist Maggie Hiltner used castoff household textiles and embroidered figures on a bright green background to critique the distancing of mankind from nature. A Woman of Substance by Jackie Abrams comments on consumerism and today’s “throw away” culture with a basket coiled from discarded silk blouses. The basket’s core elements are held in place by a single thread, which for the artist symbolizes the threads of life that hold us together and give us a common framework. Gyöngy Laky’s ALTERATIONS, which was featured on the cover of the New York Times magazine in spring 2008, incorporates tree pruning to literally spell out “The Green Issue.” Laky could be speaking for many of the artists in Green when she says, “I am interested in making a small dent in changing [i.e., altering] attitudes about the environment and our relationship to it.”

Green: the Color and the Cause is co-curated by Lee Talbot, Associate Curator, Eastern Hemisphere Collections, and Rebecca A.T. Stevens, Consulting Curator, Contemporary Textiles. The exhibition will be on view at The Textile Museum April 16 through September 11, 2011.

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Paul Raphel at The Textile Museum

For those of you who missed the airing last Friday, November 19, click here to see The TM featured on the “Weekend Events with Paul Raphel” morning show segment on Channel 5 Fox News. Paul and the Fox 5 team stopped by the galleries for a tour of Colors of the Oasis: Central Asian Ikats and learned more about the Saturday, November 20 Arts for Famililies program “Weave Your Own Ikat.” Using hand-looms, children could see the ikat-making process for themselves and take home their own swatch of ikat fabric.

Look forward to the next Arts for Families program – “Children’s Tea Party & Storytelling” on December 18, featuring tea, stories and the chance to try on clothes from Turkmenistan.

Fee: $10 (includes two drink tickets/Textile Museum members; one drink ticket/non-members). Advance tickets recommended; purchase online here.

Presented in partnership with The Pink Line Project. Bring your wristband to The Front Page after the event to receive $2.50 cocktails. Prizes donated by PS7, Teaism, Farmers & Fishers, Eat & Smile and FRESHFARM Markets. Furniture provided by Design Within Reach.

Robe
Central Asia, Uzbekistan, Bukhara
1870s-1880s
The Textile Museum 2005.36.30
The Megalli Collection

About the Exhibition

Unlike a majority of textiles that are woven with solid-colored thread or are printed or dyed after weaving, ikat is produced using the reverse process.  Individual threads are first dyed with several colors that, when woven together, produce the energetic patterns unique to this textile tradition.  Successful application of this complex technique requires extensive forethought and teamwork between various craftsmen and the designer.  For this reason, ikat has been celebrated in Central Asia as one of the region’s great arts.  In the 19^th century, when costume indicated an individual’s social rank, wealth, domestic role, tribal affiliation and geographic origin, ikat was considered the most prestigious material to wear.  Alarmingly, however, this art form was nearly lost during the Soviet era.

Oscar De La Renta Spring 2005. Photographer Fernanda Calfat. 51299358 (RM) Getty Images.

Fortunately, 19 years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Uzbekistan’s ikat industry is currently under renewal by artists using the traditional technique.  Ikat continues to gain international recognition with recent trends in fashion and home décor motivated by designers who are inspired by the textile’s bold motifs.

Robe, Central Asia, Uzbekistan, Bukhara, Late 19th to early 20th century, The Textile Museum 2005.36.31, The Megalli Collection

With an appreciation for the textile’s increasing global popularity, Colors of the Oasis will trace the historic development of ikat production and its contemporary revival.  The pieces featured in the exhibition were selected from The Textile Museum’s Megalli collection, a diverse array of 19^th-century ikat robes, pants, dresses, bohce (wrapping cloth), hangings, fragments and cradle covers donated to the institution by collector Murad Megalli in 2005 and 2009.  The exhibition is divided into three sections that guide the visitor through ikat design and artistic principles, the stories of the people who used them and how, and the technical aspect of ikat making and the people involved in this craft.  Innovative off-the-wall installations, including a setting inspired by a 19^th-century Uzbek interior, life-like displays using dress forms and historic photographs, situate the collection within a socio-historic context and encourage the visitor to appreciate the textile’s versatility and significance to Central Asian culture.  Models demonstrating the dyeing process constructed by MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art) students provide insight into how these fabrics are made.  Colors of the Oasis: Central Asian Ikats is curated by Sumru Belger Krody, Curator of Eastern Hemisphere Collections at The Textile Museum.

The accompanying book, Colors of the Oasis: Central Asian Ikats, will be the first significant publication on Central Asian ikats produced in the U.S. in over a decade.  The book, edited by Krody, will introduce the latest research on ikat aesthetics and costume history with a concise narrative of ikat production in Central Asia by contributing authors Feza Çakmut, Mary M. Dusenbury, Kate Fitz Gibbon, Andrew Hale, Sumru Belger Krody, Sayera Makhkamova and Susan Meller.  The book is beautifully illustrated with high quality images and historic prints, including a detailed catalog of the entire 160-piece Megalli Collection.

Related Programs

The Textile Museum plans to inaugurate Colors of the Oasis with a weekend symposium, Tying the Rainbow: Reexamining Central Asian Ikats from Friday, October 15 – Sunday, October 17.  The distinct collection will be unveiled with an evening reception for Textile Museum members on October 15.  A day-long lecture series on October 16 will include presentations on ikat’s production history, socio-cultural importance in Central Asia and the textile’s influence on contemporary global fashion.  Speakers will include Dr. Anne Bissonnette, Associate Professor and Curator of the Clothing and Textiles Collection at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada; Mary M. Dusenbury, Research Curator at the Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, Kansas; Andrew Hale, scholar and Colors of the Oasis catalog contributor, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Dr. Jeff Sahadeo, Director of the Institute of European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada; Dr. Elena Tsareva, Head of Textile Research at the Kunstkamera Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia; and Philippa Watkins, Senior Tutor in Constructed Textiles at the Royal College of Art, London, UK.  The symposium will conclude on October 17 with a curator’s tour of the exhibition and a show-and-tell of Central Asian ikats from registrants’ collections.  For more details or to register, visit www.textilemuseum.org/symposium.htm or call (202) 667-0441, ext. 64.

While Colors of the Oasis is on view, The Textile Museum will also host a number of exhibition-related events, including demonstrations, interactive family programs, performances, gallery talks, lectures and the popular after-hours “PM @ The TM” series.  For updates or more information on Textile Museum programs, visit www.textilemuseum.org or call (202) 667-0441.  

About the Curator

Sumru Belger Krody, curator of Eastern Hemisphere Collections at The Textile Museum, is considered the leading authority on Ottoman Turkish and Greek embroidery.  She has been with The Textile Museum for over 15 years and has served as head of the Eastern Hemisphere curatorial department since 2001.  Krody’s previous exhibitions include Flowers of Silk & Gold: Four Centuries of Ottoman Embroidery (2004-5); Floral Perspectives in Carpet Design (2006); Harpies, Mermaids and Tulips: Embroidery of the Greek Islands and Epirus Region (2006); and Ahead of His Time: The Collecting Vision of George Hewitt Myers (2007-8).  Krody has previously authored two exhibition catalogs, Harpies, Mermaids, and Tulips (2006) and Flowers of Silk and Gold: Four Centuries of Ottoman Embroidery (2000).  Krody also serves on the board of the Textile Society of America.

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To download the press release in PDF format, click here.

To download a complete press kit, click here.

Program highlights for this year’s Celebration of Textiles festival include:

• Live musical performances by acoustic roots duo Herb & Hanson (Sat., 2-4 p.m. and Sunday, 3-5 p.m.) who have performed at the Kennedy Center and Strathmore Hall, among other Mid-Atlantic venues
• Hands-on activities, including block printing and bracelet making
• Spinning, weaving, knitting, embroidery and indigo dyeing demonstrations
• Delicious Indian food from Fojol Bros. of Merlindia (available for purchase)
• Drawings for gift certificates to Teaism, Restaurant Nora, Kramerbooks and other Dupont Circle area businesses
• Live sheep-shearing demonstrations

Please note: Activities and demonstrations vary on Saturday and Sunday. For full program details, visit www.textilemuseum.org. ALL ACTIVITIES ARE FREE.

Celebrating Local Students’ Art

On Saturday from 12:30-1 p.m. a ceremony will be held recognizing the students participating in this year’s Museum-School Partnership: a 1^st grade class from Lafayette Elementary School; a 3^rd grade class from Horace Mann Elementary School; and a 3^rd-5^th mixed grade level class from Matthew G. Emery Educational Center. Through this annual program, the museum educates Washington, D.C. students about textiles and the cultures that produce them, and works with students in the creation and display of their own textile artwork. Their creations will be unveiled on June 5 and will remain on view at The Textile Museum through the month.

Current Exhibitions

Visitors can explore the colorful and whimsical textile designs of three groundbreaking women in the exhibit Art by the Yard: Women Design Mid-Century Britain, on view May 15-September 12, 2010. Also on view is the complementary exhibit The Art of Living: Textile Furnishings from the Permanent Collection, featuring furnishing fabrics from cultures around the world.

History of Celebration of Textiles

The Celebration of Textiles festival started with the goal of inviting people to come in casually and learn about the techniques and cultures represented in the museum’s exhibitions, drawing in new audiences and offering an opportunity for people of all ages to explore the wonder and variety of textile art. While The Textile Museum now provides a variety of opportunities for children to learn about textiles year-round through school programs and the hands-on Activity Gallery of The Textile Learning Center, the spirit of Celebration of Textiles has remained constant. It aims to build a greater appreciation of the textile arts through intergenerational activities that can be enjoyed by children, parents, grandparents and friends alike.

Celebration of Textiles is funded in part by the D.C. Commission on the Arts & Humanities, an agency supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. The festival is part of the Dupont-Kalorama Museums Consortium’s Museum Walk Weekend. For more information about Walk Weekend, visit www.dkmuseums.com.

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Chevron (detail), 1968. Lucienne Day. Manufactured by Heal Fabrics. Jill A. Wiltse and H. Kirk Brown III Collection of British Textiles.

The first public screening of Contemporary Days: Robin and Lucienne Day Design the UK, produced by Design Onscreen— The Initiative for Architecture and Design on Film, will coincide with the opening of the exhibition Art by the Yard: Women Design Mid-Century Britain at The Textile Museum. The 90-minute film premieres at 7:30 p.m. on May 15, 2010 at the National Geographic Museum’s Grosvenor Auditorium (1145 17th Street NW, Washington, D.C.). A question and answer session with award-winning Scottish Director Murray Grigor and Cinematographer Hamid Shams will follow the screening. General public tickets are $15, including free garage parking, and may only be purchased online and in advance through Design Onscreen (www.designonscreen.org).

Robin and Lucienne Day. Courtesy of Design Onscreen.

About the Film

Robin and Lucienne Day transformed British design after World War II with striking furniture and textiles that signaled a new modernist sensibility for everyday living. Lucienne’s abstract textile designs brought accessible elegance into the homes of postwar British consumers. Robin’s revolutionary furniture designs introduced materials such as plastic, steel and plywood to homes, offices and schools. Together, their fresh design approach helped fuel the artistic and commercial awakening that led Britain out of the devastation of World War II. The film traces the Days’ personal and professional progression over the course of their careers, spanning more than 70 years–from their days at the Royal College of the Arts in the 1930s, through their long heyday at the forefront of British design, to their recent rediscovery by new generations of design aficionados.

About the Filmmakers

Director Murray Grigor is a Scottish filmmaker, writer and curator renowned for his films on architecture and design. His first film, on Charles Rennie Mackintosh, won five international awards, and he has since co-authored The Architects’ Architect on Mackintosh’s international influence. Grigor’s other award-winning films include groundbreaking documentaries on Frank Lloyd Wright, Robert Adam and John Soane, and the landmark PBS series Pride of Place with Robert Stern. His most recent film, Infinite Space: The Architecture of John Lautner, has been a festival favorite since its premiere in 2008 at UCLA’s Hammer Museum. Cinematographer/Producer Hamid Shams has served as director, cinematographer and/or producer for numerous television commercials, music videos and short and feature documentary/narrative films, including Infinite Space: The Architecture of John Lautner, Tie-Died: Rock ’n Roll’s Most Dedicated Fans, and Painting the Town—all of which received highly favorable reviews for cinematography in major newspapers and festivals around the US and Europe.

About Art by the Yard: Women Design Mid-Century Britain

Opening May 15, Art by the Yard will be view at The Textile Museum through September 12, 2010, and is the first exhibition of its kind in Washington, D.C. The art of textile design changed radically after World War II as Britain was transformed from a country devastated by war into an optimistic consumer society. Three women designers were pivotal in this artistic revolution: Lucienne Day (1917- 2010), Jacqueline Groag (1903-1985) and Marian Mahler (1911-1983). Incorporating dramatic saturated colors and bold motifs inspired by artists like Alexander Calder and Joan Miró, these young designers transformed the market by inspiring elegant yet affordable product lines that brought the world of contemporary art into everyone’s homes. The exhibition showcases the work of these groundbreaking women designers through the display of textiles together with drawings and collages, ceramics and period furniture, all drawn from the Jill A. Wiltse and H. Kirk Brown III Collection of British Textiles.

About Design Onscreen

Design Onscreen is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit foundation dedicated to producing, promoting and preserving high-quality films on architecture and design. Founded in 2007 by Denver documentary enthusiasts Jill A. Wiltse and H Kirk Brown III, Design Onscreen’s other architectural documentaries include: William Krisel, Architect (screening at LA’s Getty Center in April 2010), Journeyman Architect: The Life and Work of Donald Wexler (2009) and Desert Utopia: Midcentury Architecture in Palm Springs (2009). Another Design Onscreen film, Hella Jongerius: Contemporary Archetypes (2009), premiered in May 2009 at New York’s Museum of Modern Art and Museum of Art and Design. Please visit www.designonscreen.org for more information.

To view the press release (PDF), click here.

To download the press kit for Art by the Yard: Women Design Mid-Century Britain, click here.

To view the press release (PDF), click here.

Untitled (Bird Chair), ca. 1953. Marian Mahler.

The fresh, innovative work of Lucienne Day (1917-2010) transformed the post-war British home and made stylish design available for all. The upcoming Textile Museum exhibition Art by the Yard: Women Design Mid-Century Britain showcases the work of Day and two of her contemporary female British designers: Jacqueline Groag (1903-1985) and Marian Mahler (1911-1983). Turning their backs on the austerity of the wartime era, Day, Groag, and Mahler took inspiration from modernist painters and helped pioneer a colorful and playful mid-century aesthetic, forever transforming the interior design industry. Art by the Yard: Women Design Mid-Century Britain is on view at The Textile Museum May 15 – September 12, 2010. About the Exhibition Featuring more than 50 colorful textiles drawn from the private Jill A. Wiltse and H. Kirk Brown III Collection of British Textiles, as well as select pieces of mid-century furniture, Art by the Yard is the first exhibit of its kind in Washington, D.C.  Magazines from the era featuring advertisements and profiles of these celebrity designers add context to the pieces on display. Noted as “full of imaginative fabrics by women who deserve more recognition” by Washington Post art critic Blake Gopnik, the exhibition opens in a year when high quality design on a limited budget is especially relevant.

The majority of the pieces in the exhibit were created by Lucienne Day, one of Britian’s most prolific and successful female designers. Her patterns, used for wallpapers, fabrics and tea towels, contributed to a distinctive 1950s and ‘60s aesthetic. Yet her sophisticated color choices and inventive references to nature remain surprisingly fresh. In 2005 Converse launched a shoe with her design Magnetic (1957), featured in the Textile Museum exhibition. Day, who passed away January 30, 2010, launched her career at the 1951 Festival of Britain. Her furnishing fabric Calyx, with its floating forms and bright colors, resonated with consumers and launched her international career. Along with her husband, furniture designer Robin Day, Lucienne believed in modern design’s transformative power to shape a better world and sought to create beautiful, useful objects accessible to all. Britain’s answer to American designer-duo Charles and Ray Eames, the Days became the poster couple for young and stylish homeowners.   

Select designs by Mahler and Groag are featured in Art by the Yard along with Lucienne Day’s work. Groag, originally from Czechoslovakia, is considered one of Britain’s most versatile designers. Her bold patterns were used for fabrics (both for the home and dress), furniture, wallpaper, and even in subway and airplane design. Mahler is renowned for her whimsical designs, with motifs ranging from birds to abstract forms. Her affordable textiles were seen in fashionable homes throughout Britain and complemented contemporary decorating styles. 

Untitled (Pebbles), ca. 1952. Jacqueline Groag.

The Textile Museum will present a full slate of exhibition-related programs to recall the era of Sputnik and Twiggy and bring the designs in Art by the Yard to life. Visiting scholars include Jennifer Harris, deputy director of the Whitworth Art Gallery at the University of Manchester, England and Dr. Pat Kirkham, professor at the Bard Graduate Center for the Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design and Culture. Look forward to period films such as The Best of Everything (screening in June) and a mid-century themed PM @ The TM after-hours party later in the summer. As Britain’s design industry was regaining momentum, Lucienne Day, Jacqueline Groag and Marian Mahler dared to offer a fresh approach to textile design in an era dominated by male professional artists. Believing that “good design” should be available for everyone, their products shaped the national aesthetic and continue to offer artistic inspiration and delight today.   

Art by the Yard: Women Design Mid-Century Britain is curated by Shanna Shelby (Curator, Jill A. Wiltse and H. Kirk Brown III Collection of British Textiles) and coordinated by Lee Talbot (Associate Curator, The Textile Museum). For more information or images, please contact Cyndi Bohlin at (202) 667-0441, ext. 78, or by e-mail at cbohlin@textilemuseum.org.

To request images online, CLICK HERE 

For the press release, CLICK HERE (pdf)

For a complete press kit, CLICK HERE (pdf)