Hector Manuel Meneses Lozano
Museo Textil de Oaxaca / Fundación Alfredo Harp Helú Oaxaca

Who Should Validate Intangible Knowledge? An Experience with Weavers from Abya Yala

Is there a way to certify the knowledge in traditional textile-making? The practice of a master spinner, the specialized knowledge of a dyer who lives in the mountains, or the generational wisdom that a weaver possesses—can we acknowledge that training, research, and labor the way we do a PhD? In this talk, Hector Manuel Meneses Lozano (director of the Museo Textil de Oaxaca) will share the reasons, methodologies, challenges, and results of a recent effort to “certify” such knowledge. Representatives from different Nations throughout this continent, universities (UNAM & La Salle Oaxaca), and the Museo Textil de Oaxaca (supported by the Fundación Alfredo Harp Helú Oaxaca) all worked together over the course of five years—concluding just this month—to design this innovative certificate.

Hector Manuel Meneses Lozano graduated from the National School of Conservation, Restoration, and Museum Studies in Mexico City, his hometown. After studying a textile fragment from the late seventeenth-century, he was invited to join the team of the soon-to-be Museo Textil de Oaxaca. Starting in 2008, he worked as conservator and collections manager, and since 2012, he has been director of the museum. His interests include exhibition design, textile creation, material heritage, and the involvement of spinners, weavers, embroiderers, and dyers with institutions—such as museums—at a local, national, and international level.

Tuesday, October 22, 12:15 pm

38 West 86th Street, Lecture Hall

Lunch will be served starting at noon. Registration required.