Linking Heritage
The Qilada Foundation is a non-profit organization focused on personal adornment from around the world. Our mission is to promote and raise awareness about its status as heritage and to reconnect collected jewellery items abroad with their original homes.
We do that in two ways: through the Qilada core collection, and through collection donations to museums and cultural institutions in the communities of origin.
Are you wondering what to do with your jewellery collection? Qilada is the solution that ensures a future for your life’s work.
Qilada
Qilada means ‘necklace’ in Arabic. Its root is used in words like ‘tradition’, ‘heritage’, and ‘links’. With Qilada, we aim to be a link in the ongoing journey of traditional jewellery. We link jewellery worldwide to museums, heritage to the next generation, the past to the future.
A future for jewellery
Many jewellery items from around the world have found new homes with collectors abroad. These collections are on the brink of being handed over: but to whom? Often, they become dispersed and disappear – along with the history that these pieces represent.
Qilada keeps the story of heritage together.
We accept existing collections into our care, describe, research and publish them. Depending on the wishes of the donor, collections can either be added to the Qilada core collection, or be transferred to museums or cultural institutions dedicated to safeguarding this heritage, preferably in their countries of origin. Either way, we ensure they are passed on into the future.
We regard jewellery as a historic source and an intrinsic part of a community. That means that not only the objects themselves are relevant, but their cultural and social context as well. Qilada strives to transmit knowledge as well: about collection management and object identification, but also about collection research and the position of jewellery as material culture of any given society.
Services
For Collectors
We help you transition your collection into a meaningful future. Our network of museums and cultural heritage institutions will establish a future for your collection in which it is highly valued, appreciated and, most of all, publicly shown as heritage. Your life’s work and passion will benefit future generations.
For Museums
We help you build up a well-described, published collection of your heritage personal adornment. Our network of collectors abroad and researchers all over the world will ensure your museum can be showcasing personal adornment for future generations.
Collaborations
When a collection is donated to the Qilada core collection, or during the period a collection is in transit in the ‘safe haven’ that is Qilada, we work to unlock and promote the heritage potential of these collections. We (co-)curate exhibitions, write publications, present talks and actively share and transfer knowledge to the next generation during traineeships and internships.
Have questions in the meantime?
Qilada is an initiative of Sigrid van Roode
http://www.bedouinsilver.com
Feel free to send me an email at office@qilada.org
Qilada 