Sunday afternoon, 24 April, between 13.00 and 16.30, the TRC will open its doors to show a pop-up exhibition that includes a number of items that were included in two collections, from Paris and Arizona respectively, that were recently received by th TRC. The majority of the Arizona items come from Albania. Most of the Paris items come from Hungary and Romania. Entrance is free, and coffee/tea/biscuits will be served.
TRC volunteer preparing the pop-up exhibition of East European traditional clothing, for Sunday afternoon 24 April.
Many of the items can alreay be seen in the TRC catalogue, which is available online. The rest will be added over the next month or so by an amazing team of volunteers led by AJ Salter, MA student Leiden University. If that was not enough, yesterday we agreed to accept a collection from Belgium of about 130 textiles and garments, the majority of which originate from former Yugoslavia. We will be picking these pieces up in a few weeks time.
The TRC already had a reasonable German and Dutch regional dress collection, together with garments from many other European countries, but we are now heading towards having one of the better (some would say the best….) European regional textile and dress collections.
In order to get these items more well-known the volunteers agreed last week to make this pop-up exhibition. So for the last few days they have been working hard on choosing traditional items of clothing for men and women from mainly Albania, Hungary and Romania.
TRC volunteer preparing the pop-up exhibition of East European traditional clothing, for Sunday afternoon 24 April.
On Sunday we have an open afternoon for anyone to pop in, talk with volunteers, see what we are doing at the TRC and of course, see a small selection of the many items we have just been given.
The small exhibition will be available for viewing until the end of May. And then what? A good question. As many people will know we are actively looking for more space and funding to expand the TRC into one of the foremost textile and dress collections in Europe. A collection and knowledge centre that covers the whole world and that will be open to anyone who loves textiles.
Too ambitious? I don’t think so – we have the staff, teaching and administrative experience and a unique collection, we are looking for someone or a company or institute who has the drive and insight to share our passion with the world.
Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, Director, 22 April 2022
Part of the TRC pop-up exhibition of East European traditional clothing, for Sunday afternoon 24 April.
