Transmissions

My role in the Transmissions project as educational advisor of the Cristobal Balenciaga Museum has been to choose the relevant fashion international universities in Europe, Asia and the Americas to participate in the project. Once the schools were identified and contacted, I contributed creating the project's content, organising the students and tutors' visits to the museum, selecting and curating the students' final garments and portfolios for the final exhibition. I was also chair and in charge of the content of the roundtable during the exhibition private view.

During the 2017/2018 academic year, the Transmissions exhibition project united professors and students from six international fashion design schools: Central Saint Martins (UAL London, England), The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (Copenhagen, Denmark), Iceland Academy of the Arts (Reykjavik, Iceland), Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art (Ramat Gan, Israel), Seika Kyoto University (Kyoto, Japan), and Parsons The New School of Design (New York, USA), around an experience of immersion in the philosophy, technique and biographical context of Cristóbal Balenciaga. After their visit to the centre, direct access to certain pieces in its archive and the study of diverse digital resources, the 150 participating students set about developing their own research and creation project achieve their personal interpretation of Balenciaga’s work. The results of the process were presented in a collective exhibition running from 14 June to 2 September 2018, displaying a selection of 26 creative proposals from among those submitted by students who participated in the project. The exhibition depicted the dialogue between the legacy conserved at the Museum, the readings of the teachers involved in these transmissions, and the personal work and talent of a new generation of creators.

Although fashion museums provide great resources for the public, they are often underutilized. A challenge for many museums is that only students and faculty within a specific department or local proximity have access to or knowledge of the collections. The project has educated a broadest segment of the fashion university population and it has advanced knowledge making it accessible to a wider audience. Taking students out of the classroom and into the museum archives can provide an intellectually and aesthetically engaging learning experience.

The study trip has helped students and teachers internationally to discover the creative heritage of Cristobal Balenciaga, one of the most influential fashion designers in history through direct study of his work. Students, design and pattern cutting tutors conducted archival visits to the Cristóbal Balenciaga Museum during 2017. Students and tutors studied Balenciaga's revolutionary shapes and disappearing traditional crafts, encouraging students on re-introducing such techniques into their own work.

The project has offered an in-depth exploration of Cristobal Balenciaga. By visiting his home town, we have been able to discover the lifestyle, values and culture of this area, and specially the historic village Guetaria, birth-town of the great designer. Tutors and students from different universities visited the museum simultaneously and then they all gathered together for the exhibition’s private view and roundtable.

The project has proved to be a great method for networking amongst museum curators, universities’ educators and students.