Institutions/Media

A wide variety of institutions, differing from designers' associations, but mainly acting in their interest or functioning as links to other cultural or economical areas, are welcome and sought-after ETN-members. They include regional or national design centres, fashion institutes, municipal or private centres of art and culture, professional libraries, foundations, etc.

In future, the Network will canvass, too, for the membership of federations and associations of the textile and clothing industry, as well as of specialized trade - as far as those institutions, beyond their immediate business advantage, are actively interested in cultural tasks and responsibilities.

The editorial staff of professional periodicals for textile designers, for the textile departments of schools and museums, as well as of the journals of designers' associations and of comparable institutions have a decisive role in active co-operation with ETN. Their contributions are essential for keeping the professional public up to date on the Network's activities, and they assist in finding people interested in participating in ETN group work; they are also ready for looking after partial tasks in the field of documentation/publication.

Active ETN membership will not be available to media destined for the general public nor to commercial media specialised in the trade. To them, passive ETN membership is possible to assist in furthering ETN objectives.

Key Persons

ETN is an association of institutional representatives. In exceptional cases individual persons without direct institutional linkage may also become active members. Being, in most cases, active key persons for specific professional fields, or particularly involved with the ETN-objectives. These are, first of all:

• Publicists,
• Art and culture critics,
• Organisers of meetings and events.

Unfortunately, there are but few specialised journalists, publicists and art critics who regularly handle textile-cultural themes and who, free of business interest in their special sector, will make independent reviewing their constant task.

The Network intends to gather and, if possible, to enlarge this important circle.

Independent organisers of meetings and events who, with great commitment, organise exhibitions, symposia, conferences, are also hard to find. It must be a matter of course to win their energy for the network.

Often, practising designers, artists and craftspeople are discerning, with much distance and excellent judgment, what is going on in their professional or regional environs, which means that, for ETN, they also are valuable observers and transmitters of information.