Exhibition

The Widad Kawar collection contains over 2000 costumes and weavings. Each piece belongs to a particular time, a particular tribe or village, with an individual story to tell.

Tiraz is a place to exhibit and combine these stories for the public in Jordan and the Middle East, as well as for cultural centres and institutions around the world. To be celebrated and understood, and collection must be seen and experienced.

Words alone cannot capture the spirit and immediacy of the embroidered patterns; the sensitivity, diversity and the richness of their forms.

Tiraz curates, describes and explores these forms, expressed in the seams of each garment, in a way which historians and visitors from all over the world will come to appreciate and remember.

A Living Archive

Tiraz is an uplink to memories and histories that an entire generation has never had the chance to experience, but is eager to rediscover. Our mission is to remember, restore and revive the vibrancy of Palestinian and Arab costume heritage in a new institutional setting which is accessible, open, and fun.

The collection is preserved in a specialized environment, to slow the passage of years and decay. A living archive is being created- based on research and oral testimony – to ensure that the collection remains fully documented for researchers in the region and world-wide.

Tiraz is not only a place for what has been. It is a place for remembering and learning the value of what still exists to this day; a place where cultural forms are experienced as well as studied, and the traditional finds its place alongside the modern.

A large part of this is working with local experts and organisations to revive traditional handicrafts, by running specialized workshops on embroidery and handicraft techniques, with a focus on economic viability, creativity and mentorship.

Communication

History has been communicated in many forms; from the architecture of the pyramids, to the gold leaf of Byzantium, to photography, to art and even to film in the modern era. It is time that costume, textile and embroidery – specifically that created in the area of the Levant over the past two centuries – becomes recognized as a valuable, colourful and intricate form of history in its own right.

Tiraz works to communicate the context and importance of the Widad Kawar Collection both within the Arab World, and internationally. The work has a visceral quality, demonstrating beyond all doubt how the tribes, peoples and countries of this part of the world have long been inter-connected with each other, and with the rest of the world.

This is why Tiraz has developed and is expanding an educational program on Arab textile heritage for schools, universities and the public. It is why we are commissioning research and publications on the role of traditional handicrafts and the women who created them. 

Ultimately, we see the museum as an organic space for a form of culture and memory distinct to Arab culture, and universal in its human scope.