Projects past

Here is an overview of some of the projects we initiated / led / collaborated on in recent years: 

,,Heldurðu Þræði" (2022 - 2023). Textile (business) innovation course developed and taught via the University of Iceland in collaboration with the Textile Center and in connection with Centrinno.  The 9-week course started on September 20, 2022 and ended in November with a visit and award ceremony at the TextileLab in Blönduós.  A second instalment was held from February 7 - May 13, 2023.

/Volumes/AMK_FLOD/SheMakes/GRAPHICS/Logo_Shemakes/Shemakes Logo/Full Logo/shemakes.png 2021 - 2022:  The Textile Center participates in Shemakes, a two-year project under the Europe Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.The goal is to empower future female innovators of the sustainable fashion industry through inspiration, skills and networks. Working as a community, Shemakes provides innovative learning paths for girls and women of various ages, and concrete business support and connections to assist female entrepreneurs.  www.shemakes.eu        

Prjónagleði: The Icelandic Knit Fest is an annual event in Blönduós organised by the Textile Center. Festival activities include many different workshops on a wide range of knitting topics, lectures, sightseeing trips to local knitting and textile sites of interest, market place, and a themed knitting competition. In 2022, the festival was held from June 10-12.

Iceland Field School (2022). Iceland Field School is a mixed-level, transdisciplinary university credit course conceived and designed by Dr. Kathleen Vaughan of Concordia University (Montreal, Canada) in association with the Textile Center. Based on her own transformative artistic residency at Ós Residency in June 2016, Kathleen began to dream of returning to Iceland with Concordia University students, and so to conceptualize and work towards creating a credit-earning field school residency in Blönduós. With the strong support of Concordia University, June 2018 was the inaugural session of this initiative in place-based learning.  13 students worked on site to explore aspects of arts, community, environmentalism, tourism and museology, often with a textile inflection. In June 2022, the project returned to Iceland with 16 new students. Check the project website for more info and the blog for their posts. The curricular initiative aligns with Kathleen’s research and creation trajectories as Concordia University Research Chair in Art+Education for Sustainable and Just Futures. Iceland Field School will be back in Blönduós in June 2023. 

Ullarþon (2021). Icelandic wool-themed idea/invention marathon ("ull" = Icelandic for wool) hosted by the Icelandic Textile Center in collaboration with Innovation Center Iceland, funded by the Agricultural Productivity Fund. See more info on the right. 

Boðflenna (2021). Exhibition by Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir (Shoplifter) on Hrútey island in Blönduós from July 3 - August 28, 2021. Initiated by Áslaug Thorlacius and Finnur Arnar - http://akleifum.is/ in collaboration with Blönduós municipality, the Icelandic Textile Center, and Íslandsstofa; funded by Uppbyggingarsjóði Norðurlands vestra, Myndstefi and Myndlistarsjóði. 

Þráðhyggja (2021) = "Thread Obsession". Project on textile waste, funded by the Iceland Student Innovation Fund, led by Sólveig Hansdóttir and Berglind Ósk Hlynsdóttir in collaboration with Iceland University of the Arts and the Icelandic Textile Center. See the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSjYFx9bRkA
 
Bridging Textiles to the Digital Future (2017 - 2020). Research and innovation project initiated by the Textile Center, funded by the Icelandic Technology Development Fund, led by textile researcher and weaving expert Ragnheiður Björk Þórsdóttir. See more info on the right. 
 

Farmer's Perception of Wool (2020). Survey conducted in collaboration with Félagsvísindastofnun Háskóla Íslands, funded by the Agricultural Productivity Fund. Read the report (in Icelandic) here.

Textile, Tryouts and Technology (2020). Textile Center exhibition during DesignMarch 2020 in Reykjavík. Presentation of projects and formal opening of the Textile Center's online weaving pattern database by Lilja Dögg Alfreðsdóttir, the Icelandic Minister of Education and Culture. 

Flokk till you drop (2020) - (a word play on the saying "Shop til you drop"; flokka = Icelandic for "sorting") was a collaboration of the Red Cross, the Icelandic Academy of the Arts, the University of Iceland, and the Icelandic Textile Center, funded by the Student Innovation Fund. The main aim of the project was to raise awareness about consumption and the amount of clothing donated to the Red Cross in Iceland. What happens to these items? What information is contained in one ton of clothing? How can design add value to this material? The project was displayed at the Museum of Design and Applied Art (Hönnunarsafn Islands) and DesignMarch in June 2020. 
 

Kvennaskólinn - Visions (2020). Architecture students from the University of Iceland stayed at the Textile Center in January 2020 to develop ideas of how Kevnnaskólinn could be used and look like in the future. Ideas were presented in August 2020. The project was supported by the Student Innovation Fund.  

Nordic-Baltic Scholarships, 2019 - 2022. In 2019, Ós Residency received a grant from the Nordic Culture Point "Nordic Baltic Mobility Programme" to host six artists from Nordic / Baltic countries for two-month residencies each. Recipients in 2019 were Josefin Tingvall and Petter Hellsing from Sweden; 2020: Kärt Ojavee from Estland; 2021 Søren Krag from Denmark and Austé Jurgelionyté-Varné from Lithuania; 2022: Heidi Pietarinen from Finland.