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Abstract
Housed in a specially designed and renovated eighteenth-century mansion in the City of Oaxaca, Mexico, the Museo Textil de Oaxaca (the Textile Museum of Oaxaca or MTO), opened in 2008. Its core mission is to highlight the exciting range of textile techniques, materials, creative processes, and designs in Oaxaca and around the world. Through cultural and educational activities, the MTO aims to improve the quality of life for textile artisans within their communities and within society as a whole. It emphasizes the ongoing exchange of skills and knowledge through an exhibition program, specialized textile collections open to the public, workshops, residencies, and educational activities. Its community-oriented, open and accessible mandate make the MTO the only museum of its kind—an institution that brings together members of the public, artisans, artists, and designers, blending traditional and contemporary approaches. The Museum is funded by the Fundación Alfredo Harp Helú, a private foundation.
Ana Paula Fuentes served as the Museum’s first Executive Director, from 2008 to 2012. Born in Mexico City, she holds a BA in Textile Design with postgraduate studies in Knit and Fashion Knitwear Design. Influenced by the time she spent at the Cochineal Center in Oaxaca, her thesis explored the Oaxacan huipil. Prior to directing the MTO, she worked in Barcelona and Mexico City designing fashion knitwear collections. She is the co-founder of the experimental 11011 Studio in Oaxaca City, and the founder of Artesana, a craft market network in Mexico.
As Museum Director, Ana Paula Fuentes was actively involved in developing and implementing the Museum’s core values and mandate, establishing projects promoting cultural exchange, outreach programs, workshops, and exhibitions involving Oaxacan textile makers. She is uniquely positioned to reflect on its role as an institutional space dedicated as much to the preservation of textiles and textile traditions and skills as it is to fostering social and community space.
Notes
From a lecture given by Ana Paula Fuentes in the Fiber and Material Studies Department of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in March 2012
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Ector Garcia
Ector Garcia was born in Red Bluff, California. A child of migrant farm workers, he has lived and traveled frequently between California and Mexico. A fascination with Mexican Indigenous folk crafts on either side of the border has given rise to the investigation of ancient techniques and materials and their potential for creative translation in his own work. Ector received his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Fiber and Material Studies in 2014 and is currently an MFAs candidate at Columbia University. He has had a solo show at Touché, a gay leather bar in Chicago, IL, and his work can be found in queer homes and spaces throughout the US and Mexico. He lives and works in New York City.
Lisa Vinebaum
Lisa Vinebaum is a Chicago-based scholar and interdisciplinary artist. Her research explores labor, performance and collectivity under late capitalism; the social histories of textiles; and the public and participatory mobilization of fiber in contemporary art. Her work has been presented, performed, and published internationally. Recent publications include contributions to the Handbook of Textile Culture, Danica Maier: Grafting Propriety, and The Companion to Textiles. She holds a PhD in Art from Goldsmiths, University of London. Lisa Vinebaum is an Assistant Professor of Fiber and Material Studies, and affiliated faculty in the department of Art History and Critical Theory at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.