ANNOUNCEMENT: 13th International Conference on Oriental Carpets – ICOC Event

The 13th International Conference on Oriental Carpets (ICOC) will be held in Washington DC from 6 – 9 August 2015.

This edition of these always popular Conferences is being held in collaboration with and in support of the new Textile Museum on the campus of George Washington University.

ICOC-XIII will include special admission to the important opening exhibition that fills the new museum, three additional exhibitions from private collections, two receptions, two days and a half days of lectures, panel discussions and programs (including a Mystery Rug sessions and a show and tell) produced by ICOC at GWU, access to The Textile Museum’s new conservation and storage facilities and a post-Conference tour to Philadelphia and New York City.

The academic sessions will feature international speakers and authorities on new trends in carpet studies, trends in carpet and textile collecting, development in the museum world, the role of the internet and social media in carpet studies and collecting, carpets and contemporary art, as well as various papers on the results of research on specific carpet and textile topics. Additional activities and events are still being planned.

In addition to the all-encompassing Unraveling Identities at The Textile Museum, the International Hajji Baba Society is mounting an un-themed and eclectic exhibition of rugs and textiles belonging to its members, some of whom have world-class collections. Virtually every major weaving area will be represented, with an effort to show what Washington area collectors have been acquiring in recent years.

The second exhibition will be of approximately 21 diverse “cushions” from Scandinavia to Central Asia. Included will be Turkish yastiks, Belouch balishts and Swedish carriage or seat cushions in addition to extremely rare cushions that are not generally known outside this exhibition. All will be from the 18th or 19th Centuries.

In this first known exhibition exclusively of cushions (stuffed textiles that were woven to be leaned against or sat upon as opposed to being storage containers such as bags), participants will see a great variety of structures, techniques and color palettes spanning thousands of miles. In some cases, these cushions will share certain design motifs or elements while retaining their own identities.

The third exhibition will be of highly collectible niche rugs and textiles from Turkey, Persia and Central Asia. Sometimes referred to as “prayer rugs,” these niche format objects will be of pile, kilim, embroidered silk, and other structures.

Click HERE for registration details on the main ICOC website.

jm

June 2015

ANNOUNCEMENT: 13th International Conference on Oriental Carpets – ICOC Event