Uzbek & six American artisans to exchange handcraft traditions
27 Feb '06
4 min read
The Institute for Training and Development (ITD) is conducting a two-way cultural exchange program with artisan workshops in Khiva and Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan.
Six American artisans will spend two weeks in Uzbekistan in April-May of 2006. In October, 2006, ten artisans from Uzbekistan will spend three weeks in New England exhibiting and teaching traditional crafts.
The short-term goals of the project are to introduce Uzbek and American artisans to each other's handcraft traditions, to enhance the marketability of products from the Uzbek workshops, and to develop an increased appreciation of Uzbek silk and fiber handcrafts in the United States.
The long-term goal of the project is to help revive the cultural heritage of Uzbekistan by improving the quality and marketability of Uzbek craft wares and, in so doing, to improve the lives and economic opportunities of the rural artisans and their families.
Since the mid-1990's, many artisan workshops have been set up in Uzbekistan in an effort to revive the rich national folk culture that was suppressed under Soviet rule and to provide work for the economically depressed country.
Khiva, a small oasis city in southwestern Uzbekistan, is recognized as one of the most homogeneous examples of Islamic architecture in the world. There, in an abandoned madrasah in the center of town, UNESCO helped found a worker-run silk carpet-weaving workshop employing mainly young Muslim women.
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