PRESERVING TEXTILES

Target Audience: Anyone who is sentient of preserving the treasured textile keepsakes for generations to come.

Topics for Discussion

• Is technical documentation alone enough for documenting a textile piece in totality?
• Does documentation of owner’s/maker’s experiences/memories/emotions has an important role to play in preserving textiles?
• Every other Indian household may have a few textile pieces valued not only for their exquisite craftsmanship but for the memories they hold which must be passed on to future generations. Shouldn’t these be documented?
• Is creating digital archives of valuable textile collections as important as preserving them physically in this digital era?
• Do museums have policies for people to donate/display their pieces?
• What could be some ways to preserve these treasured textile pieces for posterity?
• Why as a custodian of a treasured textile, it is important for you to know and implement preventive conservation techniques to your objects?
• What are some best practices of preservation that should be followed for handling and storing flat textiles, costumes and accessories.