The "Craft and Design" Exhibition at the Orenburg Down Shawl Gallery

This week the "Craft and Design" exhibition was ceremonially opened at the Orenburg Down Shawl gallery.

The future lies precisely in an inseparable union of design and craft. That is what the guests of honour and participants of the exhibition spoke about; the exhibition combined modern fashion trends with the traditional down-knitting craft of the Orenburg region.

What is on show

The exhibition delighted guests with many interesting and, above all, varied works, quite capable of claiming the status of fashionable branded items. Among them are decorative panels by Honoured Artist of Russia Anna Vasilchenko combined with down items by the best craftswomen of the Orenburg Region, a new collection by the well-known designer Anna Sovetova and the Orenburg fashion theatre, as well as works by graduates of the Orenburg Art College. The leitmotif of all the works was, of course, the Orenburg down shawl.

Opening of the exhibition

The speakers talked about the importance of developing the down-knitting craft and about the inseparable unity of design and folk craft. The ceremony was opened by Yuri Eduardovich Komlev, director of the Orenburg Museum of Fine Arts, and Irina Vladimirovna Bushukhina, head of the Orenburg Down Shawl gallery. People's Artist of Russia Zinaida Karpovich, one of the participants and guests of honour of the exhibition, also stressed how important it is to preserve down-knitting traditions and urged young people to take a more active part in preserving the craft.