Katonah Museum of Art – “Stories of Syria’s Textiles: Art and Heritage across Two Millennia

Man's abaya (cloak), from Aleppo or Damascus, late 19th-early 20th century Silk, metal-wrapped thread; tapestry weave, embroidered, 501/4 × 503/4 in. (127.6 × 128.9 cm). Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of Arthur J. Loeb and Mrs. Marguerite McBey in memory of their mother, Hortense Huntsberry Loeb, 1956, 1956-28-9. Photograph courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

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Admission: $13.00/adult and $7.00/senior adult

Stories of Syria’s Textiles: Art and Heritage Across Two Millennia highlights textiles’ outstanding contributions to Syrian culture during antiquity and between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, as well as today.

Syrian textiles are remarkable for their artistic, social, and economic significance. Finely woven clothing and furnishings are the work of highly skilled weavers and other artisans. They are also important markers of status and identity that reflect the local traditions of Syrian cities, villages and nomadic groups, and valuable luxury goods that were traded widely. Syria’s climate is ideal for silk production, and historically it was a major crossroads on the Silk Routes that connected East and West.

Since 2011, Syria has been embroiled in conflict that has resulted in the deaths of over 300,000 civilians. Millions have been displaced both internally and as refugees in other countries. Numerous archaeological sites, historic monuments, and museums have also been damaged or destroyed. With respect to textiles, longstanding traditions and knowledge are at risk of disappearing. Many Syrians are now working to preserve their tangible and intangible heritage for current and future generations, despite these exceptionally difficult conditions.
Stories of Syria’s Textiles aims to contribute to these efforts, and asks us to consider what heritage means, in its broadest sense, and why its protection merits intense commitment.

Deniz Beyazit is Curator in the Department of Islamic Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her current projects include the installation Dialogues: Modern Artists and the Ottoman Past, on view at The Met until June 30, 2024. She is consulting curator for the 19th-20th-century section of the Stories of Syria’s Textiles exhibition at the Katonah Museum.

Blair Fowlkes Childs is Adjunct Professor at Columbia University and at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. She is also the guest curator at the Katonah Museum of the exhibition Stories of Syria’s Textiles: Art and Heritage Across Two Millennia. Previous projects include co-curating The World between Empires: Art and Identity in the Ancient Middle East at The Met in 2019.