Excursions
Field Trip to the Blueprint Workshop in Einbeck
As part of the exhibition seminar “A Dress for the Table,” students led by Bärbel Schmidt participated in a workshop at the indigo printing workshop in Einbeck. Ulf Ahrens, owner of the traditional Einbeck indigo dyeing workshop, which has been in operation since 1638, introduced the students to the art of indigo dyeing. Indigo dyeing has been listed as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity since 2018. For the students, the hands-on experience of indigo printing serves as an important foundation for the planned exhibition “Blau,” which will open on March 27, 2026, at the Schafstall in Bad Essen. The first exhibition pieces were created during the workshop. Together with artist Nike Gerochristodoulou, who is presenting cyanotypes, the students will showcase their research and objects related to indigo printing in Georgia and Germany. The Osnabrück film enthusiasts documented the cyanotype printing process on camera and are creating a film about cyanotype printing for the exhibition. The exhibition is sponsored by the Schroubek Foundation, Munich.
Foto: Bärbel Schmidt.
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Blueprint workshop Jever
An excursion to the blueprint workshop in Jever took place as part of a cooperation visit to the Tbilisi State Academy of Art. The two countries of Germany and Georgia are linked by the common textile UNESCO World Heritage Site of blue printing, which is of particular importance in Georgia with Lurji Supra as Blue Table Cloth and with lively blue printing workshops in Lower Saxony and the rest of Germany. In addition to the excursion to Jever, the Georgian guests' week-long visit included a workshop lasting several days entitled “Inspiration from the Blue Table Cloth in Batik Technique” and a tour of the Bramsche Cloth Museum.
Photo: Lucia Schwalenberg
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Amsterdam-Excursion
The exhibition Unravel - the power and politics of textiles in art at the Stedelijk Museum was the destination of an Amsterdam excursion. Textiles are part of everyday life and a medium in art. They evoke memories, represent convictions and tell personal stories with social relevance. The exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum examines the role of textiles in art with the following focal points: Subversive Stitch (resistance to textiles as women's work), Fabric of Everyday Life (lived experiences), Borderlands (visible and invisible borders), Bearing Witness (social politics), Wound and Repair (means of healing), Ancestral Threads (ancestral and alternative knowledge). In addition to pioneers of textile art many young artists use textile materials and techniques. Represented in the exhibition are, among others Magdalena Abakanowicz, Igshaan Adams, Sanford Biggers, Louise Bourgeois, Diedrick Brackens, Jagoda Buić, Feliciano Centurión, Judy Chicago, Myrlande Constant, Cian Dayrit, Tracey Emin, Gee's Bend/Lorraine Pettway, Jeffrey Gibson, Harmony Hammond, Sheila Hicks, Tau Lewis, Ibrahim Mahama, Georgina Maxim, Antonio Pichillá Quiacaín, Faith Ringgold, Zamthingla Ruivah, Hannah Ryggen, Lenore Tawney, Cecilia Vicuña, T. Vinoja and Sarah Zapata. The students actively explored textile art on a guided tour. Before and after the excursion, there was the opportunity to explore
Photo: Lucia Schwalenberg
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Field trip to the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt DBU
The exhibition Jetzt geht’s rund at the Center for Environmental Communication of the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt DBU in Osnabrück is all about promoting sustainability. It explores questions such as: What if we used products for as long as possible? What if waste became raw material for new products? What if things lasted longer because we repaired or exchanged them? This way of managing resources is called the circular economy. In contrast, the conventional linear economy means that products like smartphones, T-shirts, or sneakers are often used for only a short time and then thrown away. This leads to scarce resources, growing mountains of trash, and harmful emissions and wastewater. Producing and consuming in this way endangers our environment and our livelihoods. The exhibition shows how things can be done differently. Led by environmental journalist and DBU education specialist Wiebke Lenz, with assistance from intern Jan Pohlmann, 25 students of Textile Design visited the DBU exhibition in Osnabrück. At interactive stations, the excursion participants virtually designed a circular-economy-friendly sneaker and explored raw materials such as rubber, mushrooms, and sand. The program is aimed at prospective teachers for use in everyday school life. Working in teams, the excursion participants developed ideas on circular thinking and gathered materials for future work with students in school. Bes
Foto: Lucia Schwalenberg
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Field trip to JAB Anstoetz
During a field trip to JAB Anstoetz in Bielefeld, students gained insights into the operations of the world’s largest fabric publisher. Founded in 1946, this German family-owned company offers a high-quality range of interior design fabrics and furniture in showrooms around the world, from Paris and Milan to Tokyo and New York. Of the approximately 1,400 employees, the majority work at the headquarters in Bielefeld. The company complex includes the Bielefeld workshops, which serve as a manufacturing facility for the artisanal production of upholstered furniture. Here, upholsterers, seamstresses, interior decorators, and carpenters carry out elaborate handcrafted work on orders for furniture stores worldwide. The students had the opportunity to speak with employees in the production departments, ranging from upholstery to cutting to the warehouse. Among other things, they were impressed by the variety of craftsmanship techniques, the attention to detail, the high quality standards, the in-house training, and the inclusion through the integration of supported employees from Bethel. A highlight was the visit to the newly opened company-owned meeting place frei[raum], as well as the conclusion at the factory outlet, where the students were allowed to select textile materials for their current projects. The excursion arose from the seminar “Sitzwerk – Sustainable Furniture Design.” In this seminar, led by master interior decorator Klaus Schm
Photo: Lucia Schwalenberg
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Field trip to Vienna
The trip to Vienna began with a guided tour of the MAK in Vienna. The special exhibition Confessions of a T-Shirt explores the impact of the fashion industry on people and nature. The exhibition presents solution-oriented projects for sustainable fashion design. At the MAK Geymüllerschlössel, the exhibition (Con)temporary Fashion Showcase, curated by Flora Miranda, focused on haute couture. The students presented short talks on the designer’s works, which primarily addressed AI, big data, and feminism. During a visit to the re:pair Festival at the Vienna Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art, textile researcher Walter Bruno Brix gave a lecture on the Japanese motto “Mottainai”—don’t waste anything. Brix presented textiles from East Asia in which even small pieces of fabric were repaired or recycled. Following this, the participants delved into a lecture on the historical development of the sewing box, which our student Anja Leshoff had taken over for the absent speaker. The event concluded with a workshop led by Walter Bruno Brix, during which participants could repair textiles they had brought along using the sashiko technique. In between, the students took the opportunity to visit the Belvedere, the Sigmund Freud Museum, the flea market, the Prater, secondhand shops, and Vienna’s coffeehouses.
Photo: Lesley-Ann Baldwin
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Exkursion nach Venedig
The purpose of the study trip to Venice was the Biennale Arte, the world’s largest art exhibition, which takes place every two years in the Italian lagoon city. As part of the excursion, the participants visited the Giardini della Biennale, a park complex built by Napoleon. Here, a wide variety of art was on display in a central exhibition building and in 29 national pavilions. At the former shipyard, the Arsenale, the enormous range of textile exhibits stood out, and the students explored their context through presentations. The group had one day to wander through the alleys and across the bridges of Venice, visiting exhibitions, museums, additional pavilions, and the Markusdom.
Photo: Lucia Schwalenberg
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Field trip to Hanover
Makerspace Hafven and exhibition Use-less
For the first time in three digital semesters, in-person field trips resumed for the Textile Studies program at the University of Osnabrück. One of the first took students to Hanover, where they visited the Hafven Makerspace and the “Use-less” exhibition at the August Kestner Museum. Hafven co-founder Christoph Zimmermann guided the students through the workshops and co-working spaces, followed by an inspiring exchange of ideas at the Hafven Café. Afterward, the group visited the “Use-less” exhibition at the August Kestner Museum. Many thanks to Annika Wellmann for the guided tour on the topic of slow fashion, and to Anina Mangels and Jorina Hansen for their insights into museum education.
Photo: Lucia Schwalenberg
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Alvesrode Spinning Mill
As part of the hybrid apprenticeship program, the Textile Studies class took a virtual field trip to “Die kleine Spinnerei” (The Little Spinning Mill), run by farmer Carina Reso in Alvesrode on the Deister. Carina Reso operates her own spinning mill as part of her family’s agricultural business. The goal is to process, wash, spin, and dye both the wool from her own alpacas and cashmere goats as well as customer orders from local, regional sheep breeds. These include breeds such as the Coburg Fox, Gotland, and Texel. Thanks to modern spinning technology, this is possible even in small quantities. Carina Reso combines an ancient traditional craft with the latest modern technology, spinning the yarn into a sustainable, regional product. The video tour was part of the course “From the Scratch – Textile Self-Sufficiency: Vision or Utopia” with Lucia Schwalenberg.
Photo: Lucia Schwalenberg
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Field trip to the NEONYT sustainable trade show
NEONYT is a trade show focused on fashion and sustainability. The event is part of Berlin Fashion Week and took place in January 2020 at the former Tempelhof Airport. Sustainable fashion labels presented their collections. The FASHIONSUSTAIN conference took place concurrently. The fair is aimed at trade visitors. Eight students from the Textile Studies program participated in the excursion to the NEONYT sustainability fair and the FASHIONSUSTAIN conference. Some students extended their stay in Berlin to visit the SLOW FASHION exhibition at the Museum of European Cultures or to conduct research on fashion, fair fashion, and fashion consumption within the studio and secondhand shop scene. A move of NEONYT, together with Fashion Week, to Frankfurt is planned for 2021.
Photo: Lucia Schwalenberg
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Field trip to the Textile Research Centre Leiden
Funding for a Textile Research Project
During an excursion, students gained an initial insight into the collection of the Textile Research Centre in Leiden, Netherlands. This follows a grant application submitted by Bärbel Schmidt to the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture on the topic: Narrative Fabric – Research-Based Notes on the Vestimentary Memory of the German Clothing Collection at the Textile Research Centre in Leiden, which was approved. The project focuses on clothing of German origin collected at the Textile Research Centre in Leiden. The TCR is an independent research institute specializing in anthropological and archaeological topics in the field of textiles and clothing. Due to staffing constraints, not all textiles have yet been systematically cataloged. This also applies to the items of German origin in the collection. A review could lead to a better understanding of clothing styles in the Netherlands and Germany. Furthermore, the garments could be used to analyze everyday clothing habits in both countries. In the past, clothing held a different significance in people’s lives. It was passed down through generations. Today, countless collections are produced annually. Many consumers follow the textile industry’s lead by constantly buying new clothes without paying attention to sustainable production conditions. Looking back at alternative ways of dealing with clothing and textiles serves to deepen the topic of education for sustainable development. As a first step, students will conduct an inventory of their clothing and textiles. In a second step, they will examine the items’ functional uses, material value, decorative aspects, protective qualities, or social status, as well as—where provenance is known—the interpretations and memories expressed through them.
Photos: Bärbel Schmidt
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Sri Lanka: A scource of inspiration
A field trip to a country with a rich textile tradition
In the spring of 2018, a group of students and faculty members from the Textile Studies traveled to Sri Lanka for a three-week textile field trip. Sri Lanka is a country with a rich textile tradition, particularly in the field of weaving. The country is currently rebuilding after nearly 30 years of civil war. In social projects, craft centers, and workshops, handlooms are being set up and used to produce local textiles, independent of mass production in industrial free-trade zones. In addition to skilled craftsmanship, high-quality design is essential for the successful marketing of handwoven textiles. The specific task for the excursion group, under the project leadership of Bärbel Schmidt, was to support a social project in the former Tamil civil war zone in northern Sri Lanka. The students developed and presented designs for handwoven textiles for WEAVE, a project that enables single mothers—often Tamil war widows—to earn their own income by working in cooperatives and on home looms. Other components of the textile excursion included visits to textile colleges on the island, a traditional weaving village in the Tamil region, a dyeing initiative in the mountains of Sri Lanka, textile manufacturers, textile artists and designers, the National Crafts Council, and the National Museum.
Photo: Lucia Schwalenberg
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