Date: 16th May 2017

Time: 12:00 pm

Venue: IDS, Building 8, GTU, 75 Kostava Street, Tbilisi

Event: Archive Materials and Projects of Museum of Folk and Applied Arts

Format: Power Point Presentation

Speaker: Nino Kovziashvili, Marketing and Communication Manager of  

   Museum of Folk and Applied Arts, Assistant at the Middle  Ages  

Dept. of Georgian National Museum, Museology Expert

Image © Museum of Folk and Applied Arts of Georgian National Museum

Nino Kovziashvili’s presentation of the materials from the archives of Museum of Folk and Applied Arts or G’Crafts Museum, which was founded in 1899, and of some of its ongoing projects such as School – Museum’s Friend and The Student Guides, offered an insight into a rich history of cultural heritage and its current state. The most intriguing part of the presentation was the Speaker’s statement that from the very beginning, G’Craft Museum strived to spread the ideas of British Arts and Crafts Movement, introducing to Georgia – then a part of the Russian Empire – works of its founders William Morris and John Ruskin, embracing and promoting their ideology that took inspiration, images and artistic forms from the traditional folk arts and turned them into novel objects appropriate for contemporary lifestyles – wallpapers,  typefaces and books, paintings and household items. This ideology resulted in the creation of modern design, continued in various concepts such as Bauhaus, L’Esprit Nouveau, International Style, Art Deco or Streamline.