Peru Report, Fall 2023

Ginger JonesATA Programs, Behind the Scenes, Indigenous Connections

This October marked our first public tour to Peru since Covid. It was well worth the wait for the seventeen travelers and for me as a new ATA Board member, visiting Peru’s weaving communities for the first time, to see all that ATA support has accomplished there. Over eleven days, we traveled to the Sacred Valley and Cusco, absorbing Peruvian culture expressed through fiber arts. Here are some of the highlights of our trip: In Mahuaypampa, the weaving community hardest hit by illness over the past few years, the weavers greeted us with showers of flower petals, garlands, and music. Since last year, ATA donors have supported construction of a new weaving shelter there. To celebrate, few of our participants ... Read More

Tale of a Royal Inca Tunic

Virginia GlennATA Programs

I was originally interested in Dr. Andrew James Hamilton’s Andean Textile Talk about an Inca tunic because of my love of Andean textiles in general, but also because one my favorite possessions is a textile that I bought at an ATA auction fundraiser. It’s easy to see the visual connection between the two pieces. The author's textile piece During his presentation, Dr. Hamilton introduced us to the very special tunic by explaining its uniqueness as the only surviving royal Inca tunic. Through documentation from the colonial period, he showed that the tunic’s design was originally used exclusively by Inca royalty. Since the Inca rulers never wore the same garment twice and when they died the garments were burned, it’s not ... Read More

Join Us on ATA’s first Ecuador Explorations! 

Ginger JonesATA Programs, Indigenous Connections, Travel Tours

Although Ecuador may be small, it’s a remarkable country of extremes. From the Andean highlands and volcanic mountains to Amazonian rainforests and the unique Galapagos Islands, Ecuador is one of the most environmentally diverse countries in the world. These varied landscapes translate into rich cultural heritages and a vast array of folk art traditions. That is why we are so excited to be offering ATA’s first two trips to Ecuador this fall: a five-night extension following our Peru trip in October, or an eleven-night comprehensive trip, in November. Our tours will visit the Andean high Sierra near Quito and Otavalo in the north. The longer trip also includes Cuenca in the south. Both Quito and Cuenca are UNESCO World Heritage … Read More

A Virtual Visit to the Weavers of Cusco: A Special Benefit Program

Allison KorleskiATA Programs, Indigenous Connections, Textile Traditions

We hope that you will join us on April 1 for a special event to benefit the communities of the Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco (CTTC). The CTTC supports groups of weavers in ten villages, each community with its own unique dress, textiles, and techniques. The weavers depend on sales of their textiles to help support their families and send their children to school. For several years, COVID halted tourism and, thus, textile sales. Now, just as Andean communities were beginning to recover and regain hope, the political strife in Peru has brought tourism to a halt, once again. But where there are caring hearts, there is always hope On April 1, ATA and CTTC are teaming up to … Read More

Travel to the Andes in 2023 with ATA!

Pam ArtATA Programs, Indigenous Connections, Travel Tours

Our Andean Textile Arts board recently had a scouting visit to Peru (and Ecuador) and we are so very pleased to report that we feel able to begin our textile tours again in the fall of 2023!   We found the weavers eager to show us all that they have been working on during the pandemic and especially excited for tours to start up again! We’ve even added an optional extension to Ecuador that we expect will be very popular. And, once again, Raul Jaimes will be our guide in Peru. In addition to our fall tour, we have one to Bolivia as well.  We are finalizing the costs and exact itineraries for both tours, but we have dates: PERU FALL … Read More

Congratulations, CTTC Interns!

Anita OsterhaugATA Programs, Behind the Scenes, Indigenous Connections

As part of its 2022/2023 grant requests, the Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco (CTTC) asked for the support of the ATA community to create an internships program for young weavers, aimed at developing the next generation of leadership for the CTTC and the weaving communities. You all gave generously to our spring 2022 campaign, and we were able to fund a grant that has already brought three young weavers to work at the center in Cusco. All three interns have learned new skills and provided valuable help to the CTTC’s programs. Alesandro “Sandro” Hayme, from Accha Alta, is 19 years old, and he has been interning in retail operations. He says the work in the CTTC store has been … Read More

Coca in Andean Culture

Jennifer MooreATA Programs, Indigenous Connections

On September 13, Andean Textile Arts had the honor and the pleasure of hosting Wade Davis in a Zoom presentation entitled “Coca: Divine Leaf of Immortality?”. Davis comes to this topic not only with great passion, but with an impressive background and list of credentials: author, photographer, filmmaker, cultural anthropologist, explorer-in-residence for the National Geographic Society, and of particular relevance to this topic, holding a doctorate in ethnobotany from Harvard University. The leaves of the coca plant have been in use in South America for thousands of years, pre-dating the arrival of the Spanish. Rather than a drug, coca is a mild and benign stimulant with exceptionally high nutritional value. It is held in reverence by Indigenous peoples of the … Read More

2021 Bid for the Future Funds to Help Andean Weavers Get COVID Vaccinations

Anita OsterhaugATA Programs

Thanks to everyone who participated in our 2021 fundraising auction, A Bid for the Future. Thanks to all of you, we raised more than $26,000 to benefit the weavers of the Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco (CTTC). Together, you donated 387 phone cards to help the children of the ten CTTC communities continue to attend school remotely, and 55 kilos of cochineal to help the weavers afford to dye yarn in all the beautiful reds and purples they and we love. (Special thanks to the Natural Dye Study Group of the Eugene Weavers Guild, who got together to purchase cochineal for their fellow artisans in Peru.) The rest of the auction proceeds, including over $1,500 in direct donations, will … Read More

ATA 2020 Annual Report Now Available

Andean Textile ArtsATA Programs

The year 2020 was like no other, for the ATA community and the world at large. It tested our resilience, our kindness, and our creativity. In our 2020 ATA Annual Report, just released, we reflect on the challenges we faced during the past year, including the need to sustain the Andean weavers we support as they struggled through the pandemic. Thanks to your generous donations, we were able to take on those challenges head on: Our annual donations increased 23.5%, despite the cancellation of our textile tours to Peru and Bolivia—typically our largest source of donations.  We funded 15 grants benefitting 378 adult weavers and 272 young weavers. We kept Andean textile revitalization programs running, while also preserving income for … Read More

Andean Textile Talks Bring the Andes to You

Andean Textile ArtsATA Programs

We can’t always visit the Andes, especially now with COVID restrictions limiting international travel. But that doesn’t mean we can’t experience the people, traditions, and textiles of the Andes virtually. And that’s exactly what our new Andean Textile Talks series offers you—a chance to immerse yourself in the history, beauty, and techniques of one of the world’s oldest textile cultures, all from the comfort of your home. Many of you joined us on February 9 for our first Andean Textile Talk, featuring award-winning video maker Kathy Brew and her film Following the Thread. In fact, you could say, we had a virtual packed house. Her beautifully crafted film took us to several villages in the Peruvian highlands to learn about … Read More