With the start of the high season, things are picking up around Luang Prabang.  TAEC also has a full  plate of new activities and trips on the horizon that bring us closer to our communities. Read on for more about a new exhibit we're featured in, some of our new products, and the second year of our community research project "Stitching Our Stories".

Carving a Community: The Katu People has officially launched!  A series of events kicked off the night before with the Curator’s Preview fundraiser.  Guests were able to spend an evening getting a first look at the exhibition with curator Dr. Linda S. McIntosh while sampling hors d’oeurves sponsored by L’Elephant Restaurant, and we raised $634 dollars over the night to go toward the Stitching Our Stories project!

On Friday, 20^th of September, we held the official opening and were joined by representatives of the provincial government and Sekong Provincial Museum, the Director and Vice Director of the Vietnamese Museum of Ethnology, Katu community members, and friends and colleagues from Luang Prabang.  During the event, weavers and woodcarvers demonstrated their craft in a side tent and attendees were invited to try their hand at traditional painting and backstrap loom weaving. The exhibit was funded by a grant from the US Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation and representatives from the U.S. Embassy in Vientiane were a part of the ribbon cutting ceremony.

 

For four nights, TAEC sponsored a stall in the night market with Katu artisans and passers-by (Lao and foreign!) were encouraged to try using the foot-braced backstrap loom.  On Saturday the 21^st,  TAEC reopened to the public, and hosted a special Advisors’ Panel featuring Lao, Australian, Vietnamese and American researchers sharing the stories of cultural and social changes in Katu communities. 

Carving a Community: The Katu People will be on display until September 2014.  For more information, please check our website or e-mail information@taeclaos.org.

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Stitching Our Stories Starts Year Two

We’re four weeks into the second year of Stitching Our Stories!  We’ve expanded to include women from other ethnic groups like Kmhmu, Tai Lue, Tai Dam, and Phunoi and have started the Stitching Our Stories scholarship and internship programme.  The work of the participants of years one and two will be featured in a community-curated exhibition on “childhood” opening in September 2014. Some of the young women’s work will also be showcased at the United Nations Annual Commission on the Status of Women in March 2014 in New  York City.

This project has garnered a lot of interest recently for its commitment to ensuring the voices of ethnic women are heard, providing educational enrichment opportunities to women and children, and helping to encourage ethnic pride among minorities.  If you would like to support this project, our partner, PhotoForward, has just launched a crowd-funding campaign on RocketHub and some of the funds raised will go to supporting this important project. Or, contact us directly at information@taeclaos.org.  Every bit helps to make a difference in a young woman’s life!

 

Sai, a co-teacher, leading a tour through TAEC for the students during the second class.

 

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After a year of conferences, trade fairs, and research trips, TAEC is hitting the road again in October for a handicraft development trip.  As a part of our sustainable livelihoods and advocacy programme, this trip will expand our work with rural artisans in Vientiane Province.  In Khasi District, we will reunite with a Mien community we’ve worked with for 3 years to develop new designs and provide additional training in quality control, using their traditional skills to create products suitable for a foreign market.  We will also be making our first trip to Vang Vieng to visit a Tai Lao community of weavers to develop a new collaboration.

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The new TAEC Shop.