Projects - ongoing

Tracks4Crafts 2023-2026: a Horizon 2022 funded, four-year European collaboration set to examine and transform the transmission of traditional crafts knowledge. In today’s world, crafts are valued as traditions, as heritage, but they sit uneasily in an economic environment focused on high-tech and mass-production. The main aim of the project is to revive, validate and valorise crafts. Sixteen partners including the University of Antwerpen, University Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, the Association of European Open Air Museums and World Crafts Council Europe will collaborate to identify and test alternative formats of knowhow transmission (both in physical spaces and with new digital technologies), business models to bring traditional crafts knowledge to the market, boosting  entrepreneurship, and developing tools for applying legal regulation and certification. A selection of pilot cases, including the Textile Center, are at the centre of Tracks4Crafts. The Kick-Off meeting was held in Antwerpen from March 24-26, 2023.; in November, the Consortium met for a work meeting in Florence, Italy.  www.tracks4crafts.eu

Fjólublár 2023: The project "PurpleBlue" is a collaboration of the Textile Center of Iceland, Biopol in Skagaströnd and Ístex. The goal is to create a sustainable dyeing process for Icelandic wool and focuses on purple dye production from the bacterium Janthinobacterium lividum. The project seeks to refine the conditions for the bacteria to produce purple shades by using various waste materials as a base for the bacteria to grow, and ensure an environmentally sustainable production of dye for textile dyeing. The project received funding from the SSNV 2023 Development Fund.

Fabricademy: The Textile Center became an official part of  the Fabricademy network in 2022. We are hosting the 6th edition of Fabricademy - a transdisciplinary program focusing on the development of new technologies applied in the textile industry from September 2022 - April 2023. www.textile-academy.org

CENTRINNO 2020-2023. The Textile Center, in collaboration with the University of Iceland, is participating in the European project CENTRINNO ("New CENTRalities in INdustrial areas as engines for inNOvation and urban transformation") under the research and innovation programme Horizon 2020. The 3 1/2 year project started in September 2020 and aims to revitalise once thriving industrial areas using cultural heritage as its inspiration. In connection with the project, the Textile Center also received a development grant from the Icelandic Infrastructure Fund to develop a TextileLab. www.centrinno.eu

„TextileCluster“: In 2021, the Textile Center received a Lóa - Innovation grant to develop a TextileCluster in Iceland and strengthen collaboration within textiles. The first meeting with representatives from schools, textile businesses and institutions was held in January 2022. 

,,Wool in the North“: Collaboration with Sommer Akademiet in Norway and partners in Scotland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands, led by the Textile Center. The main aim is to develop textile and wool themed slow tourism in partnering countries. NORA provided full funding for the project in 2021 and then again in 2022. In 2021, proposals for travel packages in the four respective countries were made, stakeholders mapped and data collected for the shared database. In July 2022, partners met in Greenland to work on next steps and present the project at the North Atlantic Native Sheep and Wool Conference, and in the Faroe Islands in September 2022. The last meeting was held in Iceland in spring 2023. In September 2023, the tours were presented at a travel conference in Denmark. On the Textile Center's Youtube page, there's a selection of videos from the project.

,,ALLURE”: Erasmus+ funded project focused on adult education, crafts, textile and design, led by the Ministry of Education in Galicia, Spain, in collaboration with institutions in Iceland, Portugal and Poland. Homepage: https://allureculture.eu/en

eu funded