Winter 2008Fin TAC.Indd
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The Bay Area Forum for artists, Textile Arts Council aficionados & collectors of weaving, rugs & tapestries, baskets, costume & wearable art January 2008 Upcoming Programs and Announcements Volume XXIII, All programs are held in the Koret Auditorium at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park, Number 1 50 Hagiwara Tea Drive, San Francisco. Admission to the programs is FREE to TAC members, $10 for non-members, and $5 for for FAMSF members and students with I.D. No additional Museum admission fee is necessary. You may enter from the lower garage level or from the main floor near the entrance. Saturday, January 12, 2008, 10:00 a.m. of the tribal mosaic of the region and the impact TRAPPINGS AND TENTS: NEW of Turkmen social structure and customs. He will PERSPECTIVES ON CENTRAL also explore the possible existence of separate ASIAN TURKMEN WEAVINGS aesthetic traditions depending on the function of the weavings. Additionally, Poullada will take up With S. Peter Poullada the question of the influence of Islam and local In this presentation, S. Peter Poullada, noted religious customs on Turkmen weaving culture. scholar and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Rug Society, will present an analysis of Saturday, February 9, 2008, 10 a.m. Turkmen weavings using a contextual approach ENFOLDING HISTORY AND FLUX: focused on trying SUMBA TEXTILES THROUGH to understand PRESENT TIMES the cultural, With Jill Forshee social, and historical milieu Sumba, Indonesia’s elaborate ikat and of Central supplementary warp (pahikung) textiles are Asian weaving. among the most dynamic and pictorial in the Poullada world. Historically worn by people of the noble combines caste, these vibrant fabrics persist in quality and ethnohistorical cultural importance for the people who create and research into wear them. Integral to Sumba’s tenacious cultural original sources system, they are worn at all ritual events and and analysis enfold the dead for passage to the next world. of aesthetic Sumbanese textiles have changed significantly traditions and through interaction with global markets, structural especially over the past four decades as Migrating Yomut family, northeast Iran. variables to provide a framework through tourism in Indonesia has grown. Today, textiles Original photo by William Irons. which we can understand the work of Turkmen in Sumba combine ancient ancestral symbols weavers—including the women weavers. He with contemporary images from around the will link the weavings within a continuum that world. Their designers pick and choose from extends from the tent, the inner world of the modern global culture while maintaining Turkmen family, to the wider world of the clan important traditional design principles, weaving encampment and further, to the outer world of methods, natural dye techniques, and indigenous Fine Arts the tribe and village and their interactions with iconography. Jill will bring a number of textiles Museums of San Francisco the bazaars and marketplaces of Central Asia, from her personal collection for the audience to Afghanistan, and Iran. see, touch, and even try on. de Young Poullada will look at the implications for Jill Forshee holds a PhD in cultural anthropology Legion Turkmen weavings of the variety and complexity from U.C. Berkeley. A Fulbright Scholar, she has of Honor Programs continue on page 3, col. 1 1 From the Chair more fun—the hospitality committee has been January 2008 busy welcoming members and newcomers to TAC Happy New Year! events, organizing the annual Sinton reception, and The last year was so full of great programs and prepping for the truly fabulous annual holiday party. events, it is hard to imagine doing any better, but There are many volunteers helping at these events. that is just what the Textile Arts Council has in Come join the fun. store for you this year. Your board has formed very Over the last 20 years, TAC has amassed an active committees and I thought you might like to endowment fund strictly for purchasing pieces for know what they are busy doing. the textile department. The acquisitions committee The new education outreach committee will assists the curatorial staff in the purchase of pieces be working on ways to augment the museum’s that will enhance the museum collection. educational programs. The FAMSF already has The board development committee has spent a program for visiting schoolchildren, but no months assessing the skill sets needed on the TAC textiles are included because they cannot be on board, interviewing prospective board members, permanent display. So, this committee is thinking and presenting applicants to the whole board for up ways to include textiles and to inspire kids to consideration and a board vote. Those candidates learn more about them. The committee is also are then presented for membership vote. Your board reaching out to the many college-level textile has 20 positions and three or four need to be filled programs in the Bay Area. Any members who want each year. to help with this effort are welcome. This year we will be developing a travel committee Film Festival anyone? Past chair Gretchen Turner to plan textile trips. Members are welcome to has transferred hundreds of textile films onto join this committee! Contact the office if you are DVDs, a format that can be shown in the FAM interested. auditoriums and beyond. Her efforts are truly a Past chair Peggy Gordon has led many successful labor of love, and a great resource. Do you know tours of local textile artists’ studios, and she will of a group that would welcome a showing? continue this year. They are wonderful and not to be Our amazing programming committee has more missed. Watch for email announcements. erudite speakers lined up a year ahead for our This year the fund raising committee will really gear fabulous monthly lectures. Come and hear them up with the special events committee to create and bring a friend. The Ethnic Textile Study Group some memorable and seriously fun events that also (ETSG) meets monthly and shows wonderful add to TAC funds. This past year we have begun a textiles collected by group members. special fund to offer speakers better pay. We also The communications committee has always need to address TAC’s basic operating budget. produced three newsletters a year, which are now The TAC membership dues do not cover all our available electronically! (go green, save paper and operating needs, which include speakers’ fees; postage!) They have also created and maintained audio visual fees; newsletter, flyer, and postcard the TAC website. Now they are working on other printing and postage; and paying our most efficient ways to make TAC more visible. We believe that and faithful office manager for her two days a week there are many “would be” TAC members out there with us. Several generous TAC members give annual who just don’t know about us yet. To that end, we donations toward these expenses, which are greatly created the card with our lecture schedule, and appreciated. However, it is our goal to make TAC’s now board member Hansine Goran has created a basic operations self-sufficient. stunning brochure explaining who we are and what Watch for email blasts to keep you up to date on all we do. We are so committed to this visibility idea the great events. This is your organization, so get that several board members have contributed the involved! And let’s make it grow. money to print this gorgeous brochure so that we See you soon! won’t have to use any TAC operating funds to try out this method of spreading the word. Laurel Sprigg Also, with visibility in mind—and to make things Chair, Textile Arts Council 2 Programs continued from page 1 Saturday, March 22, 2008, 10:00 a.m. Washington, DC, where she served been carrying out research in Indonesia DESIGN AND PATTERN as curator for Eastern Hemisphere on and off for 18 years. She is the Collections from 1984 to 2001. Author author of Between the Folds: Stories of IN THE TEXTILE ARTS OF of numerous publications connecting Cloth, Lives and Travels from Sumba CENTRAL ASIA textiles and mathematics, her current (2001) and Cultures and Customs of With Carol Bier research focuses on patterns in Islamic Indonesia (2006). She has also written With their bright colors and intricate art, exploring geometry and meaning. numerous articles and book chapters designs, the textile arts of Central Asia From 1995 to 2006 Bier taught “Pattern on Indonesian arts and cultures. Jill is have fascinated collectors, artists, in Islamic Art” at the Maryland Institute currently writing a novel about eastern and others in the West for well over a College of Art and courses on Islamic Indonesia and will be returning to the century. Whether large, floor-covering arts and cultures for the master of region in the near future for an carpets woven in geometric patterns liberal arts program at Johns Hopkins extended stay. Please join us for this or robes and household furnishings University. Since moving to the Bay insightful look at one of the vibrant decorated with tiny repeats of stylized Area last year, Bier has taught “Islamic cultures of Indonesia. floral designs, these textiles represent Ornament: Forms and Meanings” at many hours of labor undertaken in order Mills College, “Islamic Art” at the College to bring beauty to daily life. Textiles from of Marin, and “Sufism, Spirituality, and both urban developments and nomadic Science” and “Islamic Mysticism” in the encampments often give evidence of humanities and philosophy departments a thorough understanding of fibers, at San Francisco State University. filaments, and dyestuffs, and familiarity Please join us for what promises to with many different technologies. This be an extremely interesting look at the lecture will explore in detail just what beautiful textile arts of Central Asia.