I was so keen to get Zeitgeist published that I forgot to add the hyperlinks! So here is the relevant section with the hyperlinks added, with my humble apologies to Vibeke, Agnes, ETN and the musuems!
This is being brought home to me particularly at the moment as I have a student from New Zealand with me who is firstly learning with me, and then will be developing her skills further with Vibeke Vestby at the ETN conference workshops in July in Linz. Agnes Hauptli is an experienced weaver but she has never woven on jacquards before, and studying on my sample hand-jacquards and visiting Macclesfield Silk Museum and Paradise Mill has given her an understanding that she just wouldn’t have had if she had learnt purely on a computerised hand jacquard loom.
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Museums such as Macclesfield Silk Museum, Whitchurch Silk Mill, Tilburg Textile Museum, and many others are wonderful centres of heritage equipment who are working with existing practitioners and new designers to make their museums relevant to today’s visitor as well as keeping alive the traditional skills that are in grave danger of disappearing.