SWEDISH SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES NETWORK

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Department for Textiles; Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm:

Postal address: Institutionen för Textil, Konstfack, Box 3601, SE-126 27 Stockholm, Sweden
Visiting address: LM Ericssons väg 14, Telefonplan, Hägersten
Web page: http://www.konstfack.se

Contact person: Tania Alyhr, Senior Lecturer & Textile Artist & Department administrator Ädellab , phone: +46 (0)8 450 4270

Konstfack, founded in 1844, is unique among Swedish art schools in offering both arts, craft, design, and art teacher education. Konstfack is an institute of higher education run by the Swedish state. The study programmes are between three and five years and lead to BA and MA degrees.
It has 10 departments; • Animation & Animated Film; • Art Teacher Training; • Ceramics and Glass; • Fine Arts (Photography, Painting, Sculpture, and Curator Programme); • Graphic Design & Illustration; • Industrial Design; • Interior Architecture and Furniture Design; • Metal Design; • Textiles; and • Colour & Form. All departments are housed in the Konstfack building in Stockholm, with one exception: The Department of Animation and Animated Film is located in the small town of Eksjö.

Collaboration with India:

Konstfack has a global network of partner universities. There are co-operation agreements with around 60 schools in 26 countries, including National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, which is the main design school in India; its 250 or so undergraduate and graduate students come from all over the country, are generally very bright, and usually end up in influential positions. NID is also conected to design centres at the celebrated Institutes of Technology in Mumbai, Delhi and Guwahati.

Already in 1994-95 Tania Alyhr spent time as a guest teacher in Ahmedabad, funded by a grant given from the Swedish Council for the Renewal of Higher Education (Rådet för högre utbildning, an institution established by the Swedish Parliament in 1990, to support the development of teaching and learning in undergraduate education. Later on the mission was broadened to include postgraduate education).

From 2002 Konstfack was formally involved in collaboration with NID for some years through the Linnaeus-Palme exchange programme. Grants have made it possible to send 1-2 teachers and 2 students from the Textiles department to the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad every year, and an equal number of Indian teachers and students to come to Konstfack in Stockholm for a period of 5 years. Tania Alyhr gave numerous lectures during these years, and taught as a guest lecturer in Ahmedabad. More information on the South Asia related Linnaeus Palme grants in 2004.