TEXtile and apparel EuroMEDiterranean heritage for INnovation

The main object of the TEXMED IN project is to increase the competitiveness of the territories characterized by textile and apparel productions in the Mediterranean area in order to foster their transition toward the economy of knowledge.
In order to maintain its strategic role, the European textile sector must focus on product quality by valorising the history, the culture and the social organization of its local context in the production process.
It is the local milieu, as the result of natural and human history, that provides essential inputs to the productive organization. They include labour, entrepreneurship, material and immaterial infrastructures, social culture and institutional framework. the local system is an essential link in the chain of acquisition, circulation and storage of new knowledge.
The approach chosen by the project foresees the involvement of local institutions of Mediterranean area. Museums and enterprises will supply with documentary evidence the tradition and the heritage of the local systems, whereas research centres, universities and design schools will provide the necessary resources regarding fashion, creativity and design  for the  realization of new high added value products.

Project partners:

- Municipality of Prato (Project leader) 
- Fondazione Museo del Tessuto di Prato
- Greek Association of fashion Industry 
- FOMENT Terrassa: Agency for the developement
- Centro di Documentazione e Museo Tessile di Terrassa
- CLOTEFI: Centro di Sviluppo Tecnologico del Tessile-Abbigliamento di Atene
- IFTH: Istituto Francese del Tessile-Abbigliamento di Lione
- Fondazione Folklore del Peloponneso
- Carpiformazione 

For further information:
Mehmeti Besnik
Comune di Prato, Assessorato Sviluppo Economico
Ph. +39 0574 1835969
email: b.mehmeti@comune.prato.it

A Multidisciplinary collaboration to enhance the European Textile Identity

Financed by the European 2007-2013 Culture Programme and coordinated by Prato Textile Museum, the EUROTEX ID project will involve a team of 7 partners (textile museums, trade associations, fashion and design institutes and documentation centres), all of whom consider textiles to be a strategic feature of European history and economic development. The 2-year project will  commence in November 2008 and conclude in November 2010.
The first stage of the project will mainly involve the various museum partners of the project, who will have the chance to study the textiles contained both in their archives and in the private collections of local textile companies with a view to identifying those items which are most representative of local textile production throughout history, and especially during the period between industrialization and contemporary times. The aim of this action is to create an online database of the results of a real and proper survey of the DNA of European textiles.
The second stage of the project will concern fashion schools and will invite a selected group of students to study the documentary material selected by the museums with a view to using this heritage as inspiration for the creation of items of clothing, accessories and textiles.
The innovative strength of the EUROTEX ID project lies in its ability to set up European-wide interaction between the world of training, the world of industry and the world of culture.

Project partners:
- Museo del Tessuto di Prato, Italy
- Centre de Documentaciò i Museu Textil de Terrassa, Spain
- Associação CCG/ZGDV - Centro de Computação Gráfica, Portugal
- Escola Profissional Cenatex Guimaraes, Portugal
- Amave, Associaçao de Municipios do Vale do Ave – Portugal
- Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton – United Kingdom
- ACTE - European Textile Collectivities Association

For further information:
Museo del Tessuto
Via Santa Chiara, 24 59100 Prato
Tel. 0574-433095 Fax 0574-444585
Contact: Filippo Guarini
Email: f.guarini@museodeltessuto.it

Volunteers for Cultural Heritage

Volunteers for Cultural Heritage is a new European project, funded by the European Commission as part of the Grundtvig lifelong learning programme. 
The project starts out by acknowledging the increasing importance of the voluntary sector for preserving cultural heritage and running cultural institutions, such as museums.  It will explore this phenomenon at European level, identifying different types of voluntary work and the areas of activity in which cultural volunteers are engaged, with the objective of designing training addressed both to volunteers themselves and to the people responsible for volunteer programmes within cultural organisations.
The project takes place from November 2007 until October 2009. 

Project Partners:
- Slovenian Museums Association, Lubiana, Slovenia (Project leader)
- Istituto Beni Culturali della Regione Emilia-Romagna, Bologna, Italy
- Museo del Tessuto di Prato, Italy
- ECCOM, European Centre for Cultural Organisation and Management, Rome, Italy
- Amitié, Bologna, Italy
- MUSIS, Association for supporting museums and private collections in Styria, Graz, Austria
- Manchester Museum, Manchester, UK
- EMF European Museum Forum Trust, Bristol, UK

For further information:

website: www.amitie.it/voch

Data base of educational activities in Tuscany 

Coordinated by Prato Textile Museum on behalf of the Department of Training Policies and Cultural Heritage of the Region of Tuscany, since 2001 the Edumusei project has focused on enhancing the educational activities of museums in Tuscany with a view to consolidating the bond between schools and museums via the creation of an online database of educational initiatives promoted by museums in Tuscany.

Furthermore, since 2006, the holders of the Edumusei project ‘Edumuseicard’ have been able to avail themselves of discounted entrances fees to all Edumusei member museums. The aim of this initiative is to encourage teachers to visit museums they have never previously visited and thus to discover the activities proposed by these Edumusei museums.

For further information:
Laura Fiesoli - Edumusei Office
Museo del Tessuto, Via Santa Chiara, 24 59100 Prato
Tel. 0574-433095 Fax 0574-444585
Website: www.edumusei.it
E-mail: info@edumusei.it