Last week, the ROM hosted the first Canadian Textiles Close Up event for the Textile Society of America, featuring treasures of Islamic textile art in Toronto (10-11 Nov. 2014). This was in conjunction with the current exhibition Cairo Under Wraps: Early Islamic Textiles.
Day 1 was spent at the ROM, looking closely at textiles on display (in the gallery and classroom) as well as textiles being prepared for loan to the Aga Khan Museum (in the textile workroom). Anu Liivandi presented an overview of tiraz textiles and outlined some of the issues still to be resolved in this area of study. Lisa Golombek (Curator Emeritus) spoke about the burial context of these textiles, Chris Paulocik (Textile Conservator) about conservation challenges, and Jenny Poulin (Senior Scientist at the Canadian Conservation Institute, Ottawa) about her research on the dyes, gold decoration and glazing used in our pieces. In the evening, the group visited a local private collection of Islamic textiles and art.
The morning of Day 2 was spent touring the public spaces of the new Aga Khan Museum, including the permanent galleries and two temporary exhibitions (In Search of the Artist: Signed Drawings and Paintings from the Aga Khan Museum Collection and The Garden of Ideas: Contemporary Art from Pakistan). This was followed by a behind the scenes visit with curator Filiz Cakir Phillip to see examples of Early Islamic textiles and costume not currently on display and ended with lunch at the Diwan restaurant. In the afternoon, a visit to the Textile Museum of Canada featured a tour of their exhibition From Ashgabat to Istanbul: Oriental Rugs from Canadian Collections with curator Dr. Natalia Nekrassova. In the evening, many participants opted to attend the public lecture at the ROM by Louise W. Mackie (Curator of Textiles and Islamic Art, Cleveland Museum of Art) entitled Power Textiles from Islamic Lands.
This workshop was specially designed for TSA members and was limited to 20 participants plus speakers. Among the participants were curators and textile conservators from several North American museums - - including Louise Mackie (formerly curator of Islamic textiles at the ROM) - - and we thank them for joining in the profitable discussion and lively exchange of ideas.