bet365亚洲官网 Interior Design Professor to Study Weaving in Peru

VALDOSTA -- An assistant professor in Valdosta State University’s Department of Art, Dr. Jessica Goldsmith will travel to Peru in May to continue her study of indigenous weaving 实践.

Goldsmith was recently awarded a $5,000 bet365亚洲官网 Faculty Research Seed Grant, which will be used to fund her research. 她将前往 Peru on May 14, visiting three towns -- Lima, Cusco, and Chinchero -- and expanding previous research into the indigenous, pre-Columbian traditions of weaving and spatial use by weavers in the Andean highlands of southern Peru. 她会回到 United States on May 24.

In Cusco and Chinchero, Goldsmith noted that she will meet with Quechua weavers and study contemporary, local indigenous weaving 实践. Her objectives will be to document current weaving spatial uses, participate in weaving with indigenous weavers, and meet with local weaving leaders.

“This activity will expand our knowledge of how indigenous weavers utilize weaving 空间,” she explained in her grant application. “Previous research into indigenous weaving 实践 has primarily focused on woven products. This research has intellectual merit because it will expand past research by documenting in the field how indigenous weavers interact with their spatial 环境.”

As both an interior designer and a practicing hand-weaver, Goldsmith said that she is uniquely suited to study both how indigenous weavers use space and what they produce in those 空间.

“Indigenous Andean weaving 实践, including tools and materials, pre-date the … (Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire) …,” 她说. “Therefore, contemporary Andean weavers provide a unique opportunity to study how a traditional craft has survived into the 现代时代…….”

By going into the field and working with Andean weavers, Goldsmith will be able to record how and where Andean weavers are working today, what they are creating, how they are preserving their weaving heritage, how they are using their work, and how they are using heritage tourism to interact with weavers around the world. She noted that these indigenous weavers have banded together in an effort to maintain their fiber arts traditions, forming a weaving cooperative, providing market access, and hosting classes for local and international weavers.

“The research project is particularly significant at this time because of increasing efforts to preserve indigenous Andean 文化，”她说. “This research can inform ongoing efforts by proposing that, in addition to crafts, language, costume, and foods, how interior 空间 are used is also part of a culture’s 活的遗产. Awareness of indigenous people’s interactions with space may preserve their spatial interaction from accidentally changing and becoming absorbed into the dominant culture.”

Goldsmith’s past research into indigenous weaving 实践 has been presented at three conferences and in an accepted peer-reviewed journal article. She noted that her research in this field is and will continue to be of interest to interior designers; 环境al psychologists; architectural, design, and craft historians; as well as anthropologists.

An assistant professor of interior design at bet365亚洲官网 since 2008, Goldsmith graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Interior Design in 2006, a Master of Interior Design in 2007, and a Doctor of Philosophy in design, construction, and planning in 2012.

To learn more about the Faculty Research Seed Grant program, please visit Valdosta State University’s Office of Sponsored Programs and Research 政府 online at www.瓦尔多斯塔.edu/ospra 或打电话 (229) 259-5045.

To learn more about Jessica Goldsmith’s research into indigenous weaving 实践, please contact her at (229) 333-5855 or jmgoldsmith@瓦尔多斯塔.edu.