Our Mission
Our primary goal is devoted to Women’s Empowerment, focusing on changing the lives of poor young village girls in Asia who have the skills to continue centuries-old traditions of creating handmade and natural dyed textile art.
Our Vision
A world where women find strength and independence through their history and culture.
The Forgotten Art of Women
For thousands of years, women have created one of the most unique and complex, art forms in history. These art forms have little appreciation nor value in generating sustainable livelihoods for the artisans of traditional cultures around the world.The world, scholars, and art institutions consider textiles to be merely handicrafts and
folk art. One of the reasons being virtually every woman who weaves a textile does not
incorporate a signature into their art. One of our mission is to create an awareness
campaign to share with the world the fact that most traditional textiles throughout
history truly are an art form. Combine this with the intricate art of natural dying. In addition to this, the utilization of colors throughout the design of textile art is of the
utmost importance to the artisans and weavers.
Meet Our Founder/How It All Started
Our founder MarkO Bartholomew is a cultural anthropologist and published author of the first definitive major documentation of Bhutanese textile art heritage book on Bhutan Textile Art and Culture, Thunder Dragon Textiles from Bhutan, published by Shikosha in Kyoto, Japan, in 1985.
MarkO Bartholomew was the first cultural anthropologist to document and promote the unique culture and textile arts of Bhutan. In 1978 he
held his debut exhibition on Bhutanese textiles and published an accompanying catalog for the Museum for Textiles in Toronto, Canada. Exhibition in Japan: 1985.
MarkO Bartholomew collected nearly all of these treasures between 1976 and 1982. They were primarily obtained outside of Bhutan in India
and Nepal, through barter with the Bhutanese Royal Families, highranking members of the Royal Government of Bhutan, and top religious
leaders/Rimpoches of Buddhism in Bhutan. This provenance is unique to art collections around the world. This is a period when the awareness of Bhutan and its unique Textile Art was completely unknown to art intuitions and scholars around the world.
Preserve
Preserve the traditional cultural and intricate art forms that are often undervalued and overlooked.
Promote
Promote the skills of women and girls in rural communities so they can thrive as a sustainable weaving enterprise.
Perpetuate
Perpetuate the skill and power that women hold in their communities and as skilled artisans that improve their economic and social conditions.