La Collezione tessile di “Tela Umbra” is located in Città di Castello on the second floor of Palazzo Tommasini in via Sant’Antonio in the historic center of the city.
The exhibition unfolds in 9 rooms and reconstructs the history of the company “Tela Umbra” founded by Alice Hallgarten and Leopoldo Franchetti in 1908. In the exhibition path particular importance is given to the figure of Baroness Franchetti, a friend of Maria Montessori, to whom is owed the creation within her workshops of a small school, where, while the mothers worked, their children could study with the Montessori didactic method. Old school desks and teaching tools reconstruct the extraordinary combination between the Montessori method and the intense social commitment of Alice Hallgarten. The museum, which aims to protect and promote textile art in the socio-cultural reality of the territory, exhibits textile creations, yarns, antique looms, lace, embroideries as well as various tools for weaving and samples of all the fabrics produced in the workshop. The museum itinerary includes a visit to the Textile Collection and the weaving workshop, where even today all the phases of fabric processing are done manually.
The New Yorker Alice Hallgarten is known, besides the Tela Umbra Workshop, for having founded in 1901 the schools of Villa Montesca and Rovigliano, both open free of charge to the children of peasants until the sixth grade. The purpose is to provide training to peasants through practical lessons useful in everyday life.
Information on the Tela Umbra Textile Collection
Via Sant’Antonio, 3
06012 Città di Castello (Perugia)
0758559071
telaumbra@aruba.it
Source: MIBACT
