The TRC recently received a substantial subsidy from the Overvoorde – Gordon Stichting / het Pauwhof Fonds, for setting up a series of meetings with stakeholders in The Netherlands to discuss textile and dress related subjects. By doing so, the project aims to encourage and realize various forms of cooperation, such as joint research projects, exhibitions, the training pf personnel, and in general promote the study of textiles and dress. The round-tables include craftspeople, textile artists, museum curators, academics, commercial groups, tourist organisations, and other professional and non-professional experts. The main theme iin our planned discussions is the promotion of knowledge and crafts and their transfer to future textile workers.
The TRC organised the first of the roundtables on Monday, 1st June 2026, with various local and national groups to introduce the ‘new’ TRC and how the TRC can work together with other institutes. The meeting included a group of ten curators from various museums within the Netherlands, such as the WereldMuseum, the Centraal Museum (Utrecht), the Openluchtmuseum (Arnhem), ModeMuze (online platform), as well as a private curator.
The programme started with a tour of the TRC building, and was followed by a round-tabel discussion. The TRC director, Dr Gillian Vogelsang, emphasised that the TRC is a textile knowledge centre that focusses on what is a textile, from both a theoretical and practical point of view, and on the language of dress. To do so, the TRC uses its extensive collection of textiles, clothing and accessories (some 54,000 registered pieces). The main TRC collection is based on provenance (country, group, etc). Through its focus on technique, the TRC also studies archaeological textiles. Two other points that were mentioned were the paid fellowship programme in textiles and dress (for the next three years, eleven fellows will be working at the TRC for some six months each), and the plans to lay out a textile garden,m with plants that are used to produce and/r decorate a textile.
The TRC, by mouth of Gillian Vogelsang, suggested the participants to facilitate access to each other’s collections and archives for research, but also offered the TRC's assistance in training students, interns and curators about textiles and setting up exhibitions. The TRC can also help with research, with publishing research findings (the TRC has extensive contacts with Bloomsbury Publications, London; Princeton University Press; WBooks), with cataloguing textiles and with assessing potential donations. She also suggested to help each other with national and international networks. Possible areas of co-operation that were furthermorfe stressed included a joint webpage or platform for sharing ideas and objects with respect to collections, library, partners and donations. All participants agreed that more (public) visibility was needed for textile and dress studies, research, publications, etc.
A significant problem discussed was that museum curators often do not have the time to carry out research on their museum’s collection – yes, for an exhibition some research is normal, but not for general research. Having a research/knowledge centre, such as the TRC, may help other museums with research possibilities and questions.
Another method of working together, as mentioned during the. round-table, was in the field of exhibitions and workshops. One such exhibition is currently being organised by the Centraal Museum, Utrecht, about cotton, to be held in October 2027. The possible areas of help from the side of the TRC was the loan of historic and archaeological cotton textiles, the loan of modern naturally-coloured cottons, as well as using the TRC’s network to talk with modern fashion trade.
Another practical form of cooperation would be the linking upo of the TRC Library with that of the WereldMuseum library, so that students and researchers have easy access to both sets of books [a similar arrangement needs to be organised with Leiden University].
It was suggested that we could have a joint meeting of the group every three months to discuss in an informal manner experiences, problems, ideas, etc. Everyone thought this was a good idea and the TRC will organise and stage/house the meetings.
