About the Oxford Asian Textile Group (OATG)
Tatibin,
South Lampon, Sumatra, Indonesia, Pitt Rivers Museum 2003.69.1 |
©THE
PITT RIVERS MUSEUM, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD |
In 1995 Dr Ruth Barnes initiated the founding of the Oxford Asian Textile Group (OATG) with the specific aim of making the Oxford textile collections better known to the specialist and the interested public.
Oxford has a number of unusual and important collections of textiles from Asia and the Islamic world. Within the University both the Ashmolean Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum have major holdings: in the Department of Eastern Art in the Ashmolean Museum there are more than 3,000 textiles from all Asian cultures, while the collections at the Pitt Rivers Museum are likely to number twice as many. However, from early on OATG has also looked outside Oxford and welcomed speakers and contributors to its magazine from the world at large.
What does the Group do?
OATG offers an annual programme of events including lectures, study visits and seminars and covers a wide range of subjects from the technical aspects of textiles to the delights of traditional costume. A particular emphasis is given to the cultural context of textiles and dress.
OATG also publishes a magazine, Asian Textiles, three times a year. This includes reports on key collections worldwide as well as much information about national and international textile events.
You do not have to be a specialist to become a member, everyone with an interest in the subject is welcome. As well as the more serious events we also aim to have light hearted occasions from time to time when you might even have a chance to wear some item from your collection.
Current Committee:
Chair |
Aimée Payton |
Magazine Editor |
Nick Fielding |
Treasurer |
Helen Adams |
Membership Secretary |
Felicity Wood |
Programme Coordinators |
Rosemary Lee, Fiona
Sutcliffe |
Website Manager |
Pamela Cross (supporting
committee member) |
In 2010 OATG founding chair, Ruth Barnes, moved to the USA to take up her new position as Senior Curator at Yale University's Art Gallery heading up the new Department of Indo-Pacific Art. She has promised to remain a strong friend of OATG and to be our 'correspondent from New Haven, Connecticut'. Below is a photo from Ruth's last special talk for OATG at the Ashmolean Museum when she gave a tour of the new Textile Gallery, one of three galleries in the newly opened Museum which she had curated. The oportunity was taken to make a presentation to her of bound copies from inception of the OATG Newsletter/Magazine.
Dr Ruth Barnes, founding Chair of OATG, receiving her leaving gift of bound copies of the OATG magazine from Treasurer, Helen Adams, next to the display of T E Lawrence's robes displayed in the new Ashmolean Textile Gallery, 9 December, 2009. |