� THE ART OF CARPET
►What projects are you proud of ? - First of all , we have developed a strategy for working in all areas , including the funds . It concerned both the search for certain exhibits and the training of our employees . We trained our Restoration Department , developed and expanded our Educational Department , and immediately began working in social networks in three languages . I am proud that since 2016 we have been educating our own staff , educating them with the help of our free internship program for volunteers .
We are actively promoting our collections , publishing books , have released the first fundamental edition about the museum . I am proud of our programs for children , developing love for national culture , giving knowledge about it , the skill of understanding it . I am proud of the work on adapting the museum for wheelchair users , people with visual impairments , hearing loss . It is an inclusive project of embossed mini-rugs for visually impaired and blind visitors who can get acquainted with the ornaments of the carpets in a tactile way .
We have expanded our international relations . We are implementing vivid and significant projects with many museums around the world . We identify and examine samples of Azerbaijani carpet weaving and other types of applied art stored there . We have organized a joint project with the Louvre and displayed three valuable Azerbaijani carpets from their collection in our museum . We are cooperating with the State Hermitage , which has become interested in our inclusive project for the visually impaired based on the embossed carpet weaving method . We have cooperated with the Russian Ethnographic Museum and released a joint catalog of works of Azerbaijani art in its collection . We have implemented the same project for studying and attribution of exhibits of Azerbaijani origin with the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art in Istanbul .
Museum program for children
Acquaintance
►Tell us about yourself . How did you get to work in the museum ? Where did you get such a strong love for carpet ? - I graduated from the Azerbaijan State Institute of Arts ( bachelor ’ s degree ) and the Azerbaijan Academy of Arts ( master ’ s degree ). I worked at the Heydar Aliyev Foundation for many years . The dissertation was devoted to the XVI-XVIII-centuries artistic textile and embroidery of Azerbaijan . This corresponds to the museum activities , since our museum is not only of carpet but also of applied art in general . We preserve and display in the permanent exhibition not only carpets and rugs , objects related to the carpet industry and its history but also embroidery , traditional costumes , jewellery , artistic metalwork , ceramics , objects made of wood , and many other materials . I was the author of the thematic-exposition plan of this museum , but I never would have thought that I would return here , and even as a director . Apparently , this is fate ...
►Today there is no such area where high technologies and the Internet have not penetrated . How does the Carpet Museum use these opportunities in its work , especially in the year of a pandemic ? - They say there would be no happiness , but misfortune helped ... We , of course , and before the pandemic were actively working in virtual . But at that time it was a kind of mail message between us and the audience . We published announcements of events , reports , new exhibits , answered readers ’ questions in social networks and on our website , etc . Briefly , the area of issues that can be developed in this area was clearly outlined .
But then there was a pandemic , an unprecedented period which we have never had . Self-isolation and a system of strict prohibitions have led to the absence of the museum life . And at this point , the museum started to operate in virtual space full-time ... First , our master classes , lectures and performances appeared there , then we began to organise virtual exhibitions , quizzes , developed a number of educational topics on the history of carpet weaving and other sections of decorative and applied art , including stories about famous people . Finally , they collaborated with foreign colleagues , organising regular conversations in the appropriate section . We conducted the international project Carpet Stories . People from all over the world sent us their letters about their favourite carpets ...
We have shot about 200 videos , made more than 4 thousand posts ! We have expanded our online audience and become the examples of the successful museum adaptation during the pandemic .
Now our Internet activities are more effective than they used to be before the pandemic , but the main thing is that our employees have learned many skills : to shoot high-quality videos and voice them , to conduct video interviews . After pandemic we are not going to stop our virtual activity . On the contrary , we will use its opportunities more and more productively .
Mini rug for the visually impaired
►What kind of carpets do you have at home ? Would you like to have some special masterpiece at home or should unique carpets be in museums for everyone to see ? - We have a modest collection of carpets , which I inherited from my grandparents , who donated these carpets as a dowry to my parents . There is a small carpet , which is especially valuable to me . It was woven
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