You ask whether your committee should venture beyond rugs and bags to include other rare and beautiful textiles? What if a great feathered Meso-American cape ... early-19th century Mexican serape... First Phase Chief’s Blanket... Coptic roundel... Amish quilt?

I think this is one of the first issues your committee ought to address - what is the intent of the exhibition? Is it to showcase midwestern collections of textiles? If not, what? If so, why restrict the options except to the extent that the submitted pieces dictate it?

Having said that, though, i think it would be best to avoid single examples of way-off-the-mainstream stuff. That is, one chief's blanket is worse than none, although three might make for a good representation. Likewise with Amish quilts.

Regards,

Steve Price

So far the range of pieces submitted has been limited to pile and flatwoven textiles which generally fall into what we think of as oriental rugs. Now I know we can get off into quite a discussion of what qualifies as an oriental rug, but I think we all know what's meant by that term. There are rugs, bags, and trappings (though as has been previously queried here, just what they "trap" is a complete mystery to me).

But how could one turn down a fabulous feathered cape? ...even if it came from half a world away from the traditional rug-producing countries? The best of them are certainly rare and beautiful.

-Jerry-

What will the committee do if someone submits an Andean feathered cape? It's a policy matter.

The fact that it is an item of great beauty is relevant, but not sufficient if the committee determines that it is outside the range of items to be considered. There are lots of beautiful things, even beautiful textiles, that will surely be outside the range. Were I on the selection committee (absurd as that might seem to some, that is the premise on which your Salon is based, for each of us) my opening position would be that if there are three or more feathered capes, we might want to have a small section of the exhibition devoted to this topic. One cape wouldn't suffice.

The Textile Museum currently has an exhibition of jewelry, the rationale being that the particular genre is textile-inspired and/or woven metal. To me, it's out of place in that museum, but not nearly as jarring as, say, one piece of "woven metal" would be at the next ACOR exhibition.

Regards,

Steve Price