DEADLINE EXTENDED TO MARCH 26!
Weave a Real Peace (WARP) is an international textile organization that supports artisans, offers scholarship grants, and holds an annual meeting to bring together textile makers and appreciators to talk about all things weaving, cloth, and community. I have belonged to this organization for many years, organized its Oaxaca annual conference in 2017, and find it to be very satisfying to be a member.
I’ve offered to help spread the word about submitting applications for scholarships to help individuals and organizations improve their capacity. All textile artisans are invited. They may need help with the application based on language skills — so if you work with a Mexican weaving cooperative, we hope you will jump right in and help them submit an application in the next week. Thank you.
Here is the application information:
| Dear Friends of WARP, There is one week left to apply for a 2023 WARP Artisan Support Grant! Please help us spread the word: Textile artisans from any country are welcome to apply. WARP is offering one-time grants of up to $500 for individual artisans and up to $1,000 for artisan groups. This year, we are providing two grant options: one for Basic Needs and one for Development. This reflects the fact that while many artisans may still need COVID or other emergency support, others are transitioning out of an emergency situation and now have needs that are more development-oriented. The application deadline is March 19th, 2023. The link to the electronic application form is below, with details about this year’s grant program. Please share this announcement with any textile artisan or artisan group you think would benefit from this grant.For any grant related questions, please contact Diane Manning, WARP Grants Committee Chair, at dkmanning@gmail.com.Best wishes,WARP Grant Committee |
Here is the LINK TO THE ELECTRONIC APPLICATION.
Use the electronic form to submit, but I’ve included the language of the grant application below.
2023 WARP Textile Artisan Grant Application
Weave a Real Peace (WARP) is a catalyst for improving the quality of life for textile artisans worldwide. We are an inclusive global network of individuals and organizations who value the social, cultural, historic, artistic, and economic importance of textile arts. Learn more about WARP at: www.weavearealpeace.org.
We are delighted to announce that, for 2023, WARP will again award monetary grants to textile artisan communities in need.
This year, WARP is offering two grant options: one for Basic Needs and one for Development. This reflects the fact that while many artisans may still need COVID or other emergency support, others are transitioning out of an emergency situation and now have needs that are more development-oriented.
- Basic Needs: This option is for applicants who are still experiencing hardship due to continuing effects of COVID or other circumstances such as drought, extreme heat, or floods.
- Basic needs could include but are not limited to: food or seeds for food crops, medical care/medicines, clothing, utilities, dependent care, education, or housing.
- Development: This option is for applicants who are seeking to grow their business coming out of COVID.
- Development needs could include but are not limited to: artisan supplies (dye garden, wood for loom, fiber), equipment (sewing machines, looms, etc.), marketing materials (camera, product photography), technology (cell phones, computer, etc.), training (need to specify what, whom, where), and travel (to attend trade fairs, markets).
NOTE: You may apply for a Basic Needs Grant or a Development Grant, but not both.
Eligibility Criteria:
Textile artisans from any country are welcome to apply.
If you are applying for a Basic Needs Grant, you must describe in your own words what you require and how specifically this grant will help you.
If you are applying for a Development Grant you must articulate a plan that includes specific information about what you want to do, how you want to do it, how much it will cost, and how it will help you grow your business.
Total grants will be up to $500 for individual/family applicants and up to $1,000 for associations/coops/businesses.
You may submit more than one grant application: i.e., one for yourself, and one or more for artisans and/or artisan groups with whom you have a relationship. However, you may not combine applications. Each application will be considered separately.
You may apply for a 2023 WARP grant whether or not you applied for or received a grant from WARP in a previous year.
Timeline:
Deadline to submit completed applications: March 19, 2023. Only applications submitted during this timeline will be accepted.
Grant recipients will be notified: April 14, 2023. Grant funds will be disbursed as soon as possible after grantee notification
Grantees confirm receipt of funds via email: As soon as possible, but no later than 14 days after receipt of funds
Summary written report stating how funds were used (form will be provided): July 17, 2023
Questions?
Contact Diane Manning, WARP Grants Committee Chair, at dkmanning@gmail.com.
Non-Discrimination Statement:
No person shall be denied membership or participation in any of WARP’s activities or operations on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, sex, gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status.
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BASIC NEEDS GRANT APPLICATION
NOTE: You may apply for a Development Grant or a Basic Needs Grant, but not both.
If you are applying for a Development Grant, please skip this section and go directly to the Development Grant Section below.
You may submit more than one grant application: i.e., one for yourself, and one or more for artisans and/or artisan groups with whom you have a relationship. However, you may not combine applications. Each application will be considered separately.
Please select one:
I am applying as an Individual/Family (you may request up to $500 USD)
I am applying as an Association/Cooperative/Multi-household group (You may request up to $1,000 USD)
I am requesting the following amount:
Your answer
Please describe what emergency you are experiencing (for example: COVID 19, drought, flood, earthquake, war, etc.)
Your answer
Describe how the emergency has impacted you/your family/household or group? Please provide as much detail as possible.
Your answer
How specifically do you plan to use this Basic Needs Grant? Grants may be used for essentials including medical needs, child/elder care, housing, utilities, food, and seeds for growing crops, etc.
The more details you provide, the better the Grants Committee can evaluate your application. If not enough details are provided to fully assess how the grant funds will be used, a grant will not be awarded.
Your answer
How many artisans (family/household members/group) would benefit from this grant request?
Your answer
How long have you and/or your family/household/group been creating textiles?
Your answer
What type of textile do you produce?
Your answer
Where do you make and sell your textiles?
Your answer
Please attach up to 3 images of your work here. If you are unable to upload the files, please send images to info@weavearealpeace.org. We must see examples of your work for the grant application to be considered.
Add file
Provide any additional information that will support your application. This will help the Grants Committee better understand your needs and how you will use the funds.
Your answer
DEVELOPMENT GRANT APPLICATION
NOTE: You may apply for a Development Grant or a Basic Needs Grant, but not both.
If you applied for a Basic Needs Grant above, please skip this section and go directly to the bottom to submit your application.
You may submit more than one grant application: i.e., one for yourself, and one or more for artisans and/or artisan groups with whom you have a relationship. However, you may not combine applications. Each application will be considered separately.
Please select one:
I am applying as an Individual/Family (you may request up to $500 USD)
I am applying as an Association/Cooperative/Multi-household group (You may request up to $1,000 USD)
I am requesting the following amount:
Your answer
Please describe your 2023 development plan and how specifically your business will benefit from this Development Grant.
(For example, I/we want to expand our 2023 production by 20%, or I /we want to send 5 people to a training workshop so that we can improve the quality of our designs.)
The more details you provide, the better the Grants Committee can evaluate your application. If not enough details are provided to fully assess how the grant funds will be used, a grant will not be awarded.
Your answer
Describe the specific requirements to execute your plan. These could include, but is not limited to:
– artisan supplies (dye garden, wood for loom, fiber)
– equipment (sewing machines, looms, etc.),
– marketing materials (camera, product photography),
– technology (cell phones, computer, etc.),
– training (need to specify what, whom, where),
– travel (to attend trade fairs, markets).
Your answer
Submit a budget that lists the cost for each item you will need to accomplish the plan described above.
For example, if your plan states that you needed 5 sewing machines to increase production, your budget would state the following:
– I/we will purchase 5 new sewing machines
– Each one costs $100
– Total grant request: $500
Your answer
How many artisans (family/household members/group) would benefit from this grant request?
Your answer
How long have you and/or your family/household/group been creating textiles?
Your answer
What type of textile do you produce?
Your answer
Where do you make and sell your textiles?
Your answer
Please attach up to 3 images of your work here. If you are unable to upload the files, please send images to info@weavearealpeace.org. We must see examples of your work for the grant application to be considered.
Add file
Provide any additional information that will support your application. This will help the Grants Committee better understand your needs and how you will use the funds.
Your answer
Oaxaca WARP Conference Kicks-Off with Marta Turok Wallace Keynote Talk
Marta Turok Wallace is a noted applied cultural anthropologist whose specialty is Mexican textiles. A resident of Mexico City with roots in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, (her parents were ex-pats), Marta was invited by program chair Judy Newland to speak at the WARP (Weaving a Real Peace) textile conference held in Oaxaca, June 8-11, 2017.
WARP attendees gather in San Pablo Cultural Center, Oaxaca
More than 70 people attended the conference. They came from Mexico, the USA, Canada, Poland and Russia.
Applied cultural anthropologist Marta Turok Wallace
What Marta talks about concerns all of us who love indigenous textiles and appreciate the people — women and men — who make them. She asks questions, makes observations, offers solutions and consultation. Then she steps back and listens, suggests, guides. She affirms that weavers can create their own destiny, their own future for themselves, their families and their communities. And, that consumers can more fully appreciate the history behind the cloth.
WARP president Cindy Lair welcomes participants
Traditions are powerful in Mexico. Remote villages throughout Oaxaca continue to weave garments using distinctive iconographic designs particular to place. These weavings are rooted in centuries past, worn by grandparents and great-grandparents. There are garments for daily wear and special ceremonial occasions.
Clothing is cultural identity in Mexico. It signifies where you are from and your status in the community.
Teotitlan del Valle weaver Porfirio Gutierrez talks about history, culture
Yet, over time, clothing has changed (think cotton to synthetic threads, hand-spun to machine-spun) based on cost of raw materials, time to make, and influence of current fashion trends in the larger culture. This has an impact on style, design and quality. As villages interact with each other because of communication and ease of transportation, there is design-crossover, too.
What is “pure” or “authentic” is no longer relevant, perhaps. Change happens and it is impossible to keep people in a box doing what they have always been doing to satisfy collectors and appreciators of tradition. What we want to do is encourage innovation, collaboration, independence and economic success.
The inversion graph, an aging population of artisans, copyright M. Turok
Marta showed a slide explaining that there is a 50% loss of traditional artisans in Mexico. Artisans are aging out and so few of the next generation are stepping in to continue the work. She asks, Why is tradition dying out?
Is the acquisition of artesania being abandoned by the consumer? What is happening in the communities to impact this change? What is in need of revitalization? How do you prepare artisans to sell at fairs and expoventas? How do they show things, take orders, fulfill and ship? Are goods priced fairly for the amount of time put into making them? What are people willing to pay because something is made in Mexico? How do you commodify art, handmade?
Scholarship recipients present their work, philosophy of design
So, it’s not only about keeping the skill alive, it is about getting it out into the marketplace? Once something becomes commercialized, then does that erode its value and also compromise how an artisan is compensated?
As they say, It’s complicated!
Young women from Chenalho, Chiapas, represent their cooperative
And, if one changes the scale of motifs or introduces different color palettes to satisfy marketplace demands, or adapt a textile to another purpose (think going from sarapes/ponchos to rugs to handbags and purses), is this a compromise of traditions?
Important topics of discussion during the conference included appropriation of traditional design motifs by contemporary fashion designers, fair wages, using sustainable and native materials. “What is Fair Trade, really?” when there are no standard rules.
Speaker Eric Chavez Santiago will discuss commercialization
Marta notes that when something is handmade AND mass-produced, someone is not being paid very well.
Many of us want to meet the artisan, have a personal relationship and buy directly so that the money exchange benefits the maker 100%. That’s not always possible, so it’s important for us to read labels, and ask who made my clothes.
We also need to be sensitive and conscious to the myth that Mexican handmade items are cheap or that we can bargain just for the fun of it. Let’s be conscientious about the haggler mentality.
What we also notice is that most weavers are no longer creating cloth for themselves — they are weaving for the marketplace, no longer investing a year of labor to create an elaborate ceremonial huipil. They may dress in ready-made cotton or polyester purchased at Soriana or Walmart. Why?
SOLD: Hand-woven, embroidered ceremonial huipil, San Felipe Usila.
[Note: This “stained glass window” huipil, above, is from the Chinantla pueblo of San Felipe Usila, about 12 hours from Oaxaca up a mountain road. I know the makers. It is woven on a back-strap loom, then intricately embroidered in cross-stitch. A special piece. Size L-XL. $500 USD. Time to make: 8 months. Who wants it?]
To dress differently exposes one to racism and discrimination. We heard a story about a Oaxaca village where the mayor was so intent on assimilation, that he forbade any weaving of traditional garments. It took thirty years to rescue the tradition by encouraging a new generation of weavers to bring back their cultural identity.
During the conference, Andares del Arte Popular hosted a curated show and sale of artisans in an adjacent patio. Conference-goers could meet the makers and buy directly from them. It was a wonderful introduction to Oaxaca for WARP.
A conference of weavers, dyers, anthropologists, collectors, textile lovers
I was pleased to to work with WARP to produce this conference. I served as the on-site administrator and conference planner, participated on the program committee, contacted speakers, organized a panel discussion, arranged for hotel, meals, conference venue, transportation, and a one-day natural dye textile tour for all conference attendees. We went to villages to meet artisans and understand the complexity of the creative work of Oaxaca. On Sunday, 12 women accompanied me on an optional walking tour of Oaxaca with a focus on naturally dyed textiles. More about this in the next posts.
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Posted in Clothing Design, Cultural Commentary, Travel & Tourism, Workshops and Retreats
Tagged anthropology, conference, culture, Marta Turok Wallace, Mexico, Oaxaca, textiles, WARP, Weave a Real Peace