American Friends of … the Georgian Textile Group

In 1997 and 1999, AFG gave small grants to textile artist Nino Kipshidze for the Georgian Textile Group (GTG) she founded in 1993 after the fall of the Soviet Union.

The GTG is an association of professional artists, designers, researchers, folk artists, art historians and ethnographers working in the textile field in Georgia. Their original purpose was to overcome the isolation of Georgian textile artists and to promote their work abroad. A newer goal of the association is the revival of the centuries old traditional textile crafts of Georgia as well as the reduction of poverty and isolation of women artisans struggling in remote regions of the country.

Georgian textiles created by the GTG

Last year, the Eurasia Foundation and USAID gave a grant to the Georgian Textile Group to offer workshops. Local artisans received training by foreign experts in dying with natural dyes, felting, weaving, knitting, design modification and marketing in order to compete in the international markets.

In the summer of 2007, the GTG participated in the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market in New Mexico. They have just been asked to return in 2008! They competed with 400 applications from more than 55 countries and were one of 100 selected. This is excellent testimony to the quality that the GTG has achieved in working with these isolated women.

AFG is offering assistance to GTG in two ways. One is to raise money to continue the training and development of these special Georgian skills and the other is to help to identify ways to market these crafts in the West. If you have interest in providing support for either or both of these efforts, please get in touch with us.

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