We need a gathering place for the textile field!

Denmark has museums such as: Clay Ceramics Museum Denmark, Glass – Museum of Glass Art and Museum of Paper Art. We do not have a museum for textiles.
We dream of an institution that conveys both textile traditions and works that reach into the art world. A place that collects, preserves and documents the textile field and is an active exhibition centre that presents new contemporary expressions and projects. Be it textile art, crafts, design, fashion – all textile genres that are made with ‘soft’ materials.

We observe how textile expressions are growing in the visual arts, how students and recent graduates from design schools visit our workshops for further training because they are hungry for tangible professional knowledge and insight into their subject.
At the National Gallery of Denmark, the textile tools department is in high demand. There are reports of long waiting lists for the private training centres across the country that offer high-level training in textile crafts. This is a clear indication that there is a lack of training centres and educational opportunities.

Textile art today

Textile artists are equal members of the artist organisations. Danish Textile Art is documented in 4 reference works for the period 1986-2019. Several textile artists exhibit together – for example, Danish Tapestry Art has celebrated its 25th anniversary as an artist organisation with exhibitions in Denmark and abroad. Many site-specific textile artworks hang in public buildings and large companies, but their registration is missing or lost. The textile church decorations are countless.

As Maria Kjær Themsen, in Dagbladet Information’s major cultural supplement on 11 October 2024, wrote in her art criticism of the exhibition ‘Needle and Thread’ at Brandts Klædefabrik:

‘I have really looked forward to a museum presentation of such an important and underexposed field in Danish art history as textile-based art.’

‘Textile-based art carries a loaded legacy. Traditionally perceived as a woman’s work at its worst, or as handicraft when it was less bad. In both cases, a devaluation. Because fabric and thread have never been recognised on par with oil on canvas, it has been too closely linked to the female body and domestic chores to be taken seriously as art.’

Textile communication has great value on several levels

Being able to work and approach learning through the tactile and analogue is a necessity in order to understand and develop the field for the future.
We are facing a huge challenge in relation to textiles and sustainability that requires everyone’s skills. Danes lack basic knowledge about textiles – properties, manufacturing and product – which is essential to understand and change usage habits. Increased awareness of textile materials and craftsmanship will help make wise choices and future solutions, and the silent and invaluable knowledge that still exists among Denmark’s textile practitioners must be utilised, but especially secured before it disappears forever. It’s getting to be the last call.
The interest and opportunity to seek out knowledge should be available to everyone – artisans, visual artists, children, young people, indeed everyone of all ages.

Who is looking after our textile knowledge?

In the spring of 2024, a large number of culturally important and valuable tapestries were sold on the Danish auction market. Tapestries made by Denmark’s finest textile artists who were active in the 1960s and 50 years onwards – several of them are still active and alive today. Rugs, many of which were created as site-specific works, are now scattered and history has been lost. Unfortunately, we are also experiencing the same loss of knowledge in the country’s museums.
Although we pride ourselves internationally on Danish Design, the many textiles and textile collaborations between furniture architects and weavers/textile printers are rarely told and emphasised. A textile museum will ensure a professional dissemination of this silent knowledge on both a theoretical and practical level, as well as being a platform for research and development. This is complemented by an exhibition programme that actively shows what is happening nationally and internationally in textile art and design.

There is momentum now!

We want to take action now, when interest in textiles is so clearly heightened – in the general public, in professional circles and politically where we are encouraged to adopt sustainable behaviour.
A physical space for knowledge, development, collections and displays of textiles of all kinds is important to support the understanding and use of textile resources. But also to ensure the documentation of textile arts and crafts for future practitioners and researchers.
Enthusiasts are sought, financial assistance is desired – now it’s time to saddle up and create a gathering place for the textile field.