‘Irthi empowers women socially and economically through craft’

Our profile series for this year’s International Women’s Day ends with Irthi Contemporary Crafts Council. Since its beginnings in 2015, Sharjah-based Irthi has fought for the employment of women, encouraging those who are skilled in craft to join its team of artisans.

It also works to ensure heritage techniques are preserved, with its success evident in an impressive roster of designers and brand collaborations. We spoke to Farah Nasri, its acting manager for curation and design, to find out more.

What is Irthi, and why was it started?

Irthi Contemporary Crafts Council was founded in Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates, with a vision to create an artisan economy for women. It also aims to preserve the culture and traditions of the UAE, revitalising ancient crafts for a contemporary market.

Our work now stretches much further than the UAE, and engages women artisans across the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, Central Asia and South East Asia to ensure the preservation of indigenous craft heritage. It empowers women economically and socially through training and up-skilling programmes and aims to provide a fresh narrative for these craftspeople. By developing new market opportunities via collaborations with internationally known names and designers, the crafts they practice are revitalised, recontextualised and brought into the spotlight.

What does craft bring to the people of your organisation?

For the people who work with the council, craft provides a means of making a living, as well as a way to preserve the ancient traditions of their regions. By collaborating with well-known brands such as Cartier, their work is propelled onto an international stage and contextualised for a modern market, thus creating more opportunities.

Tell us about some of your collaborations

One of our recent collaborations, Zenobia, was with designer Nada Debs, who is based in Beirut. The collaboration interweaves Nada’s ‘heartfelt and handmade’ design manifesto with the traditional craft of Emirati talli weaving (handwoven braids) to create homeware inspired by the traditional vases and vessels carries by Bedouin tribes. A lot of the creative energy for the collection was driven by the Beirut explosion in August 2020, and Debs' desire to support artisans however she could.

Elsewhere, during Expo 2020 Dubai, we held a series of talks aimed at bringing attention to our work, one of which focused on the importance of documenting crafts. The first roundtable discussion, ‘The art of weaving connections’, convened a group of speakers representing prominent regional and international cultural institutions who have led the preservation and promotion of local crafts and artisans, women’s economic empowerment, and youth training via sustainable crafts practices.

How has your work changed over time?

Since its conception, the council has worked to bring in more and more artisans from across the globe to ensure that their crafts are preserved. It currently has more than 500 artisans who engage in the programmes, a number that is ever-increasing. The council ensures the documentation of tangible and intangible craft heritage, with the latest efforts leading to Sharjah’s recognition in 2019 by Unesco’s Creative Cities Network as a 'City of Crafts and Folk Art'.

What’s next for Irthi?

This year we are working to open more centres outside of Sharjah in order to increase accessibility for women across the UAE. Our focus will be developing our lower to mid-range products, so that they are accessible for more people across the world, as well as setting up an online shop where customers can easily buy our products. By doing this, we will reach a larger audience and thus be able to support increasing numbers of artisans via their crafts.