The Dutch East and West India Companies (VOC and WIC) were instrumental players in the early modern global textile trade. This trade brought great wealth to the Companies, which underwrote lasting systems of oppression and violence, most notably – though not exclusively – the transatlantic slave trade. While the negative impact of the trade is irrefutable, the global movement of silks, cottons, linens, woollens, and dyestuffs also facilitated the spread of new knowledge systems, encouraged inventive material expression, and challenged existing power structures. How are we to understand the innovations fostered by the early modern textile trade in light of the systemic oppression with which it was interwoven?

The event, co-organized by Carrie Anderson, Jenny Boulboullé, and Hanneke Grootenboer, features various presentations as well as poster presentations by master students of the UvA MA course Global Textures: Fibre Arts and Fabrics of Resistance on textiles from the UvA Textile Study Collection. It also marks the launch of a newly funded research project Black Magic on the Leiden staalmeesters’ textile sample books. This event is hosted by the Amsterdam Centrum for Studies of Early Modern Culture (ACSEM) at UvA and will be held at the Kartini room at Bushuis aan de Kloveniersburgwal 48 in Amsterdam with drinks afterwards.

Programme

13:30 Doors open: poster exhibition with students of the UvA MA course ‘Global Textures: Fibre Arts and Fabrics of Resistance’ and coffee & tea

14:00 Welcome by the co-directors of the Amsterdam Centre for Studies in Early Modernity (ACSEM):
- Feike Dietz (professor in Dutch Literature, UvA) and
- Djoeke van Netten (associate professor in Early Modern History, UvA)

14:05 Introduction by the co-organisers:
- Carrie Anderson (associate professor of History of Art & Architecture, Middlebury College, Vermont, USA);
- Jenny Boulboullé (lecturer, Art & Culture; researcher Black Magic project, UvA);
- Hanneke Grootenboer (professor of Early Modern Art and Visual Culture, UvA)

Presentations:
- Carrie Anderson (associate professor of History of Art & Architecture, Middlebury College, Vermont, USA) and Marsely Kehoe (art historian): co-founders Dutch Textile Trade project
- Gieneke Arnolli (former curator Fashion and Textiles, Fries Museum Leeuwarden)
- Vanessa Jones (costume curator, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam)
- Jenny Boulboullé, Hanneke Grootenboer and Marjolein Homan Free (textile conservator and lecturer, Conservation & Restoration, UvA; co-custodian of the Textile Study Collection) on the UvA Textile Study Collection (UvA STC) and student projects

Poster pitches by students MA course Global Texures: Fibre Arts and Fabrics of Resistance

15:30 Students’ poster session with textiles from UvA Study Collection & private collections

tea & coffee break 

Presentations:
- Sabine Bolk (researcher, curator, and artist, sabinebolk.nl)
- Marieke de Winkel (professor by Special Appointment of Fashion and Textile History, Radboud University)
- Sjoerd Ramackers (UvA RMA History student; junior researcher Colonial History of the city of Leiden, Leiden University)
- Launch NWO/NICAS Black Magic project 
Project leaders: Ana Serrano (assistant professor for Conservation Science and Art History, textile specialization, UvA; co-custodian of the Textile Study Collection) and Maarten van Bommel (Professor for Conservation Science, UvA); Jenny Boulboullé (project team member and researcher, UvA)

17:30 Poster exhibition and drinks

18:30 End of event