Resource Spotlight | Oxford Asian Textile Group
Oxford Asian Textile Group
In 1995, Dr. Ruth Barnes initiated the founding of the Oxford Asian Textile Group with the specific aim of making the Oxford textile collections better known to the specialist and the interested public.
Oxford has a number of unusual and important collections of textiles from Asia and the Islamic world. Within the University both the Ashmolean Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum have major holdings: in the Department of Eastern Art in the Ashmolean Museum there are more than 3,000 textiles from all Asian cultures, while the collections at the Pitt Rivers Museum are likely to number twice as many. However, from early on Oxford Asian Textile Group has also looked outside Oxford and welcomed speakers and contributors to its magazine from the world at large.
Oxford Asian Textile Group offers an annual program of events including lectures, study visits and seminars and covers a wide range of subjects from the technical aspects of textiles to the delights of traditional costume. A particular emphasis is given to the cultural context of textiles and dress.
Oxford Asian Textile Group also publishes a magazine, Asian Textiles, three times a year. This includes reports on key collections worldwide as well as much information about national and international textile events.
Oxford Asian Textile Group has also launched a blog which will include abstracts from the magazine articles as well as other material such as last minute exhibition reviews that do not make the print deadline for the magazine.
You do not have to be a specialist to become a member, everyone with an interest in the subject is welcome.
Current Committee
Chair
Aimée Payton
Treasurer
Sheila Allen
Membership Secretary
David Richardson
Meetings Secretary
Judith Colegate
Program Coordinators
Katherine Clough and Felicitas von Droste zu Hülshoff
Magazine Editor
Gavin Strachan
Blogger
Sue Richardson
Website Manager
Pamela Cross
Member At Large
Julia Nicholson
Selections from Yale University Art Gallery
Indo-Pacific Art Collection
In 2010, Oxford Asian Textile Group founding chair, Ruth Barnes moved to the USA to take up her new position as Senior Curator at Yale University Art Gallery heading up the new Department of Indo-Pacific Art.
