Silk Road Connect: blue passion in education

摘要

During ISEND 2011 at La Rochelle, many speakers described educational projects in different parts of the world for which natural dyes are the inspiration. Here, Jenny Balfour-Paul describes one of these projects, through her work with Silk Road Connect. Indigo is the world's most valued dyestuff and became the centre of an educational experiment launched in New York City in 2009. Used in ancient times by all the great civilisations, indigo's relevance has continued into the twenty-first century as the dye essential for the most universal of all fashion items, blue jeans. Jeans link generations and continents and it is estimated that on any given day they are being worn by half the world's population. The dye that colours them connects arts and sciences; history and geography; botany and agriculture; chemistry and physics; politics and economics; trade and industry; ethnography; clothes and furnishings; applied arts; medicine and cosmetics; and folklore and music. In 2007 indigo must have been in the global educational air. Manchester's Whitworth Art Gallery staged a major touring exhibition Indigo: A Blue to Dye For, which included popular educational and arts events for all ages. Meanwhile, the eminent American/Chinese cellist Yo Yo Ma was exploring indigo for an experiment in interdisciplinary learning in New York City. Modern artwork from the UK exhibition toured to the Textile Museum in Washington DC for their exhibition Blue. Ma sent members of his Silk Road Project team to visit it.