Rug and Textile Appreciation Morning: Traveling the Textile Lands of Greater Anatolia, Persia, Central Asia, and Beyond

Join inveterate traveler and textile expert Vedat Karadag on a journey through the textile lands of Turkey, Central Asia and beyond.

Karadag started dealing in Ankara’s flea market in the early 1980s, when Westerners’ interest in great antique rugs and kilims was growing. He focused on textiles from Ankara and Istanbul, later expanding to include rugs and kilims from the city of Konya to the south. During this time, a number of now-famous collections were formed from the rich textile traditions of Turkey and Central Asia, including the DeYoung Museum’s Caroline and McCoy Jones Collection of kilims and Heinrich and Waltraut Kirchheim’s Orient Star collection.

For the past four decades, Karadag has also led cultural and textile-oriented trips to Greater Anatolia, Central Asia, Syria and Persia. In this virtual talk, he will share highlights from his textile travels.

About Vedat Karadag

Vedat Karadag was born in Ankara, Turkey, and inherited a love of textiles from his mother. He is an experienced traveler and enthusiastic promoter of Anatolia, the Silk Road and its textiles, and Oriental rugs. Karadag loves to introduce others to the varied aspects of Turkic culture and to the history, food and artistic traditions of Anatolia and Central Asia. He has been a participant and speaker at the meetings of many rug and textile societies in the United States, and has attended numerous international textile conferences in Europe and America.

How to Participate

You can register for this program online. After you register, we will email you a link and instructions for joining online via Zoom. Simply follow that link at the time the event starts (11 a.m. EDT). When you register, you can also request to receive a reminder email one day before the program with the link included.

About Rug and Textile Appreciation Mornings

Collectors and experts discuss textile topics and display examples from their personal holdings. This series is named in honor of late Textile Museum trustee emeritus, Harold M. Keshishian.