Textiles from Chiapas tell the evolution of weaving
A recent grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ (IMLS) Museums for America program is helping the Science Museum to digitize its rich collection from the Chiapas region of southwest Mexico. The collection is made up of textiles and weaving equipment purchased from Maya artists from the 1970s through the 2010s.
The 1200-piece collection has a long history at the museum. Initiated and built by former curator of Anthropology Lou Casagrande with the help of research associate Chip Morris, it illustrates innovations in a constantly changing landscape of weaving, while at the same time demonstrating the deep continuities of traditions across millennia — traditions that stem from the ancient Maya or even earlier. “It’s really clear that within the last 20 or 30 years, tourism has really influenced these weaving traditions,” says Dr. Ed Fleming, curator of Anthropology. “Looking at the items in the collection, we can study what is made for sale versus what the community members actually wear. How do different materials and global economics all play into the ways the practices have changed over time?”
Once the digitization is complete, it will be available online, drastically broadening access to this extraordinary collection.
This two-year, $191,000 grant, which kicked off in September, allows us to partner with Na Bolom, a museum in San Cristobal, Chiapas, to connect with weavers in the villages. “We’re interested in learning how digitizing this collection and putting it online will be useful to them,” says Fleming. “What kind of data do they need: is it a high-resolution image so they can do thread counts? Do they need to see inside these textiles? With smartphones more readily accessible than computers, how can we make the records optimized for mobile accessibility? All of these insights are important and will help us make the project more broadly useful.”
This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services grant number MA-251877-OMS-22.
