In the photo:
Department Head Assoc. Prof. Jūratė Petruškevičienė
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The origins of the present KAF Department of Textile go back to 1940 when professional textile studies were established in the Kaunas School of Applied Arts. Since then textile has been taught in Kaunas almost without interruptions up until now. The first Lithuanian textile artists were educated in Kaunas, who eventually established Kaunas as a center of textile art. In addition, Kaunas has a number of textile industry enterprises and regularly hosts important applied art exhibitions.
Textile studies in Kaunas Art Faculty are based on the most innovative ideas and methods. The Departments faculty members are recognized textile artists who actively participate in Lithuanian and international textile exhibitions and whose work has been awarded prestigious prizes. Seeking to renew its study programs, visiting artists are regularly invited to teach in the Department. (Since 2001 a textile artist Eglė Paulina Pukytė has been teaching in the Department). The Department maintains professional contacts with similar profile institutions abroad (Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology in Ireland, Latvian Art Academy, and others).
Since 2001, instructors and students of the Textile Department have been participating in SOCRATES-ERASMUS study exchange program. Since 1997 the Department is a member of the European Textile Network and actively participates in numerous symposia, seminars and conferences. KAF textile students strengthen their understanding of contemporary textile through participation in international textile exhibitions in Lodz (Poland), Budapest and Szombathelys (Hungary) as well as in Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts (Austria).
The KAF Textile Department has been among the main initiators and organizers of annual international textile exhibitions that take place in the National M. K. Čiurlionis Museum of Art in Kaunas since 1996. The Department instructors and students also regularly have shows in the Kaunas-based Gallery of Textile Artists Guild and the national exhibition center LITEXPO in Vilnius.
The Textile Department study programs lead to Bachelors and Masters Degrees. During their first years, students acquire skills in various technologies of loom weaving, fabric printing, batik, traditional and contemporary tapestry weaving. In their senior years, and especially in Masters Degree studies, students are encouraged to open up for creative experiments that involve conceptual ideas, non-conventional materials and techniques. Laima Oržekauskienė emphasizes that a contemporary textile artist must know textile art traditions but work with a good sense of contemporary context and have a conception of what textile is going to be in the future.
Textile students use KAF textile workshops that allow working with the techniques of weaving, painting, printing, silkscreening and others. After graduating students apply these skills in light industry design, interior design and conceptual textile.
| Faculty |
| Department Head |
Assoc. Prof. Jūratė Petruškevičienė |
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| Instructors: |
Prof. Laima Oržekauskienė
Assoc. Prof. Danutė Valentaitė
Assoc. Prof. Rasa Žukienė
Assoc. Prof. Loreta Švaikauskienė
Assoc. Prof. Vita Gelūnienė
Lect. Virginija Vitkienė
Lect. Monika Žaltauskaitė-Grašienė
Lect. Lina Jonikė
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| Assistant: |
Raimonda Rasimavičienė |
| Technician: |
Giedrė Kriaučionytė |
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