AHT 3210 - Global History of Textiles

Textiles provide a vast visual resource to explore the history and cultures of the globe. Textiles create beauty, express identity and status, display power, tell stories, and strengthen community through the representation of shared values; they provide insights into a society’s economics, class structure, and spiritual traditions. Additionally, they serve as inspiration to many visual artists, including sculptors, designers, and printmakers. In this course, we will examine the basic techniques of textile production (weaving, dying, and needle arts, among others), and study the riches of textiles from Africa, Asia, Oceania, the Americas, and Europe. Our home base in Manchester plays an important role in the great textile- producing traditions of New England; we will visit the Currier Museum and Manchester Historic Association to view first-hand examples, as well as create textile projects as part of our study. Credits: 4 Formerly AHT 321