The director of the TRC, dr. Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, recently attended a conference in Jordan on "Traditional Textile Craft. An Intangible Cultural Heritage?", organised by the Jordanian Museum and the Centre for Textile Research, Copenhagen. A brief report follows below.

• Meeting: Conference and workshop held in Amman, Jordan, 25-31 March 2014
• Title: Traditional Textile Craft - an Intangible Cultural Heritage?
• Main Organisers: Centre for Textile Research (CTR), Copenhagen, Denmark and the National Museum of Jordan
• Present: See attached sheet
• TRC representative: Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood (GMV)

Stated aim: to bring together academics and crafts people from a wide variety of disciplines and cultural backgrounds to discuss their work on and with textiles and to see how they can help and inspire each other.

Three days of talks were divided into four sessions considering the following themes:

• Theme 1: Definitions of traditional craft practices and the use of terminology
• Theme 2: Relationship of traditional textile crafts to modern fashion studies
• Theme 3: The use of traditional textile crafts and craftsmanship in the interpretation of ancient societies
• Theme 4: Preserving traditional textile heritage and making it visible.

This was followed by several days of trips in Jordan to craft workshops and places of note. Unfortunately due to the pressures of work GMV was unable to attend this part of the meeting.

About twenty-four papers were given that included archaeological reports as well discussions about various forms of textile crafts and related organisations and individuals. At least fourteen different countries were represented by the participants.

Most of the papers were generally between 20 and 25 minutes in length. They were given in groups of two and four with discussions afterwards. This proved effective after two, but it was more difficult with four speakers as the talks, speakers and questions tended to merge. The most animated discussion session followed a request for help dealing with moths - a practical subject that everyone had encountered and dealt with at some stage. The textile conservation facilities of the National Museum, Copenhagen, were described in detail along with various methods of treating and displaying early garments. No moth would dare look in the window, let alone cross the threshold of such a sanctity.

One aspect that was highlighted by the talks was the significantly different approaches and lives of the people carrying out textile crafts. Two extremes were those who enjoy crafts, sometimes as a means of earning a living and/or as a hobby. Generally they had a strong appreciation and interest in their cultural heritage (Scandinavia). In stark contrast there were those who earn a living by producing textiles and whose sometimes fragile existence depend on many people, men and women, working very hard and producing enough textiles in order to feed their families (India).

Another point raised was: what was meant by the word traditional? An example was given by Toolika Gupta (University of Glasgow), referring to the so-called traditional men's clothing of India, which turned out not to be so old or purely Indian as is generally assumed. Interestingly, Uma Prajapati was present whose father was one of those responsible for designing the Sherwani/achkan outfit. She was able to add some personal anecdotes about the introduction of the garments in the 1940s.

It was interesting to see that the majority of the papers covered, not so surprisingly, various Scandinavian topics, followed by Eastern Mediterranean and Middle Eastern ones. There were two talks about Indian subjects, one about Central Asian felt and one about ancient South American forms. There was little about more recent American textiles and nothing about sub-Saharan African forms. Yet there is a living and widely practised craft of textile production in both of these vast regions of the world. In Africa there is an active craft production of textiles of many different types (especially relating to fibres, dyes and dyeing, weaving and printed forms) and these may well shed light on hand produced textiles from other parts of the world, both past and present. Perhaps this could be the subject of a future workshop?

A subject that was touched upon, but which was not dealt with in great detail was the role of NGO's in the craft production of textiles. There was a talk about UNESCO and Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), but it soon became clear that this is a complicated topic and difficult to access without specialist help. It might be useful one day to have a workshop on this theme, as well as the role of international grant giving bodies with respect to the funding of crafts (both the practise and recording).

A paper by Cecile Michel (CNRS, France) discussed the production and export of domestically produced textiles from Mesopotamia to Anatolia in the first millennium BC. This was an early form of semi-industrialization and international trade, in which women played a dominant role in the production of the relevant goods. Is this situation unique or has an important part of women's and economic history been missed? Again another subject for a workshop.

GVE's talk was about North African and Middle Eastern embroidery. It was based on two questions: Was there such a thing as Arab embroidery? and what is embroidery? Information about the associated book was presented. Various people indicated they would like to purchase a copy. This book should be available in November 2014.

There was also an opportunity to see the Tiraz, the new home of the Widad Kawar collection, as well as a visit to see the Jordanian National Museum's early history galleries. Two very different institutes involved in displaying, recording and preserving various aspects of Jordanian and the surrounding region's history and material culture.

All in all a very interesting meeting, with a wide variety of speakers. As with all conferences, the chance to catch up on news, see old friends and make new ones were important aspect of the event. I look forward to the next one!

Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, Leiden, 6 April 2014.