MUSEOS DE LA SEDA / SILK MUSEUMS

- Internship programs for students of different professions (exhibitions, museum col- lections, educational programs, library, etc.). Some of the thematic workshops include teaching different skills: - The Unbroken Thread - workshop was organized in collaboration with Norwegian company Tronrud Engineering about innovative jacquard loom TC2. In the framework of this project, museum organized a summer school “Pixel Genera- tion” for visual artists, learning how to use the digital loom and include it in their artistic practices (2017). - Weave Your Scarf –after “Maintain the Brilliance” program, the museum launched a practical project about weaving scarfs using the two manual looms available at the museum. It became very popular, and visitors register to learn and weave scarfs for themselves, or as gifts. Public lectures, discussions and symposiums also constitute an important aspect of educa- tional activities. Some examples implemented at the State Silk Museum include: - Textile as Art?– discussions and open meetings with textile artists and designers to discuss textile as a medium in contemporary art practice (2015-2016). - Tradition and Innovation – 130 th anniversary of the State Silk Museum including special programs, international conference and public meetings. Among them, was Friendship with the World Silk - Museums , an exhibition-manifest representing various silk museums around the world, which responded to our call on collaboration for this project (2017). COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS, CONTEMPORARY ART AND THE STATE SILK MUSEUM The State Silk Museum has several directions in its current working strategy and one of them is to support different collaborations, contemporary art, to connect current artistic and cultural events with the museum specifics and to develop platform for new visions and cooperation. On the one hand, it provides rethinking of existing knowledge through new projects and on the other hand, it further popularizes the museum. The State Silk Museum has organized and/or hosted several important local and international projects, exhibitions and activities: - Art Intervention in the Museum (March 2016 – February 2017) - collaborative groups of Georgian artists and curators, inspired by the museum space and its collections worked at the State Silk Museum. During this project, 4 successful contempo- rary art exhibitions were organized at the museum. (Project financial support and partners: Swiss Cooperation Office in South Caucasus, Culture and Management Lab). Being active in contemporary art, the museum started to have contemporary art collection, including a number of works that have been exhibited at the museum. The State Silk Mu- seum has been working on a number of collaborative projects and co-organized exhibitions, such as: 132