SPECIAL PROGRAMS

summer-2016-apulaya

We offer you special programs on Andean culture, combined with festivities, excursions and stays in andean communities.

2026 – 2027 PROGRAMS

JULY 2027

SUMMER PROGRAM

TEXTILE ART AND CULTURE

July 11th – 24th, 2027

This program offers textile learning from a transversal approach. The participants are trained in the pallay technique. The program includes theoretical sessions, which allows to learn about the sociocultural background of textiles. Likewise, immersion in the pompous mamacha Carmen festivity in Pisac is part of the program.

OCTOBER 2026

INTENSIVE ANDEAN TEXTILE ART COURSE: THE WORLD OF PALLAY

Weaving Classes – Semiology – Mythology – Pre-Columbian Textile Art

October 11th – 24th, 2026

The Andean civilizations´ textile art is one of the most complex in the world. Today, a diversity of techniques, applied in an immense variety of textiles, is being put into practice in high Andean communities. This two-week program offers a textile learning in a multidisciplinary way.

Practical Areas

  • Weaving on Backstrap and Pallay

Lectures y Expositions

  • The Accha Alta Community’s Textile Tradition: Tecniques, Iconography and Symbolism
  • Documentary Moovies

Seminars

  • Semiology of Andean Textiles: Iconographic interpretation
  • Astronomy and Cosmology in Archaeological Textiles
  • Mythology and Ritual in Andean Textiles

Workshops

  • Natural Dyeing
  • Handling the Andean drop spindle (Puska) and Thread Twisting

Field Experiences

  • Staying and Weaving in an Indigenous Community
MAY – AUGUST 2027

ANDEAN TEXTILE ART STUDIES – SEMESTER-LONG HYBRID PROGRAM

May 3 – August 28

This program offers a one-semester hybrid study program in Andean textile art. The content of the curriculum covers the learning of a variety of weaving techniques and explores textiles as a cultural expression from an interdisciplinary perspective. The program concludes with an independent research project and the writing of an essay.

OBJECTIVES

  • Learning various weaving techniques.
  • Understanding diverse textile aspects within their cultural context through the lenses of anthropology, semiotics, and archaeoastronomy.
  • Acquiring analytical methods and developing critical and reflective skills.

CURRICULUM

Practical lessons

  • Weavning tecniques such as pampa, lista, pata pata.
  • Training in pallay (pick up) techniques.
  • Tubular braiding techniques.
  • Natural dyeing.

Integrated modules

  • Participatory stays in a Quechua community featuring textile experiences.

Theoretical courses and seminars in a hybrid format

  • Textile semiotics.
  • Astronomy in pre-Columbian textile art.
  • Textile art:myth, ritual, and symbol
  • Fashion, the creative economy, heritage and cultural appropriation from ananthropological perspective.

Research Project

  • Research methods and ethics.
  • Independent research Project.