Teaching with Textiles: Collections in the Classroom and the Community
An exhibition of pieces from the Avenir Museum’s permanent collection, demonstrating their use in teaching AM 460 “Historic Textiles.”
The artifacts in the Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising were first collected in the 1950s when faculty developed a small group of historic examples of textiles and clothing for teaching students. The collection and facility grew over the last sixty years to more than 20,000 objects, four galleries, and an 18,000 square foot dedicated building. Students learn directly from objects in this collection through hands-on classroom experience and research of collection objects.
In a senior level course called Historic Textiles, students gain exposure to the ever-changing nature of textile composition and use across the globe and develop an understanding of the relationship of textiles to social, economic, political, and cultural forces. The content of the course is designed from an inclusive perspective that seeks to incorporate the Principles of Community at CSU and the definitions of Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion produced by the American Alliance of Museums.
This exhibition brings textiles out of the classroom and into the community by presenting some of the course objectives and outcomes studied by students throughout this semester-long class. As future designers, product developers, and marketers of textiles, students in the Department of Design and Merchandising build upon their skills in recognizing historically inspired apparel and furnishing textiles. Throughout the gallery are examples of student research projects of collection objects from the Fall 2017 and Fall 2018 cohorts of this course.
The course begins with an examination of traditional methods of making and decorating textiles. From there, the semester moves forward through time beginning with global ancient cultures and into the early 21st century. The importance of methods of making to various faiths, the role of power in determining access to certain fabrics, and the ways in which people present their identities through textiles are some of the topics presented in the classroom and in this exhibition.
Ultimately, textile history is the story of people who make, use, and save examples of past design. By further understanding the world history of textiles, students in the Historic Textiles course develop awareness of the social responsibility of designers in respecting and honoring various cultural influences when creating and marketing textile products. In learning to recognize and identify the contributions made by diverse people throughout time and place, and how people in the past interacted with each other through appropriation and innovation in textile design and technology, students become cognizant of their own role within the grander narrative of global textile history.
Through object-based learning in our classroom and our community galleries, the collection at the Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising helps us to better know the past, to teach the present, and to encourage an inclusive future.
