• Twintex Museums

Network of European Textile Collectivities Association museums

The Twintex Museums project was devised by the Executive Committee of the European Textile Collectivities Association (ACTE) on the suggestion of the Municipality of Prato, the representative of the work group on textile museums.

The general objective of the project is to exploit the traditional know-how of each textile community in such a way as to generate new inspiration and innovation. The main aims of the project are thus to survey the private archives of local companies in such a way as to map the type of textiles produced in each area (with a view to establishing the DNA of European textiles) and to complete a study focusing on the feasibility of adopting a single computer language with a view to integrating the contents of the many local archives surveyed.
The project commenced in July 2006 and has so far seen the organization of a Twintex Museums Conference hosted by Prato Textile Museum on 30-31 March 2007 and an exhibition entitled Towards a European textile DNA organized by Prato Textile Museum.

For further information:
Filippo Guarini (Director of Prato Textile Museum)
Website: www.twintwexmuseums.eu
E-mail: info@twintexmuseums.eu

• La Tela di Aracne: enhancing female entrepreneurship in the Mediterranean textile sector

Organized by a partnership of members from six Mediterranean countries with important textile manufacturing traditions (Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Tunisia, Morocco), the aim of the La Tela di Aracne project, an Interreg III B Medocc project which concluded in September 2006, was to develop a series of activities designed to support the development of female entrepreneurship in the textile sector via the planning and implementation of a number of museum-based ateliers (workshops organized by museums in which local craftsmen, artists, designers, entrepreneurs, students and textile could come together in order to focus on the development of innovative design projects).

As a result of these activities, the museums were no longer seen as places whose purpose was merely the conservation, study and exhibition of historic items, but rather as real and proper incubators of project ideas whose implementation could favour both the economic and cultural development of the territories of reference.

For further information:
Website www.teladiaracne.org
E-mail info@teladiaracne.org

• European Textile Itineraries

The aim of the European Textile Itineraries project was to enhance European regions with important textile manufacturing and training traditions via the development of a series of internet-based itineraries. Aimed at tourists, professional figures, textile experts, scholars, artists, designers and craftsmen wishing to discover the textile manufacturing histories of Europe, these itineraries focused on five main areas of interest: monuments; events; textile heritage; manufacturing; and education and research.

Financed by the European Union, the project was completed in 2001. The project was coordinated by the Head Office of the European Textile Network in Hanover, while Prato Textile Museum was responsible for developing itineraries in the region of Tuscany. In the end the Tuscan itineraries visited over 26 places of interest to the textile industry, including museums with textile collections, industrial buildings, specialized schools and textile workshops.

For further information:
Website: http://www.etn-net.org/routes