Linking Heritage
The Qilada Foundation is a non-profit organization focused on personal adornment from North Africa and the Middle East. Our mission is to promote and raise awareness about its status as heritage and to reconnect collected jewellery items abroad with their original homes.
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 bringing the story of traditional jewellery full circle, by facilitating its return home as heritage. We link collectors worldwide to local museums, heritage to the next generation, the past to the future.
A future for jewellery
Many jewellery items from North Africa and the Middle East 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 strives to re-collect existing collections, describe and publish them, and transfer them to museums or cultural institutions dedicated to safeguarding this heritage, preferably in their countries of origin. 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 in North Africa and the Middle East 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
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 