The funding from “The Winnie” Grant will support an exhibition, The Kaleidoscope of Textiles: Dress as Multidimensional Cultural Documents, which will provide opportunities in professional practice for graduate students and upper-level undergraduate students in preservation, exhibition, and storage of historic artifacts.  

Specifically, students will survey regional styles of dress, fashion, and textiles housed within the University of Rhode Island’s Historic Textile and Costume Collection.  The students will also be responsible for the textile display, conservation, and mounting of the artifacts that will culminate in the exhibition for the Textile Gallery in Quinn Hall in April 2020 (postponed to Fall 2020). 

Through the exhibition and accompanying educational program, students and public audiences will be given an opportunity to experience the technical study and the sociocultural meaning of clothing and textiles.  This is especially important in today’s society as ethnic diversity continues to increase in the United States. The exhibit will represent the ethnic diversity and socio-cultural richness of our population, and simultaneously promote respect and understanding of cultural groups in the United States through a display of textiles and clothing.