Barco, San Lucas Tolimán, Guatemala
2009 – Ongoing
Barco is a group of women weavers in San Lucas Toliman. The name Barco, which means “boat” in spanish, is also a combination of “bar” and “co” which are elements found in each members’ name. The group is an off-shoot of Ajkem’a Loy’a and did the same marketing, business and product design workshops with our students. In 2009, we helped them make their own website and collaborated with them on a line of pillowcases and scarves for the U.S. market. By 2011 their scarves were selling very well at Colibri in Antigua, Guatemala, at Nightwood in Brooklyn and at Maryam Nassir Zadeh in New York.
Artisan Group
Barco
Students
Sandra Benavides Miro Quesada, Parsons, Fashion Marketing
Larissa Favier, Parsons, Integrated Design
Moira Keogan, Parsons, Integrated Design
Rebecca Lesesne, Parsons, Integrated Design
Alexandra Parkin, Parsons, Integrated Design
Faculty
Pascale Gatzen, Associate Professor, Parsons
Funding Support
Sheila C. Johnson – her generous donation in 2007 kicked off this entire initiative
Special Thanks / Partners
CARE
Maryam Nassir Zadeh – has Barco’s 2012 collection available
Nightwood – has sold scarves designed by Barco
Colibrí – a high-end craft store in Antigua, Guatemala, has sold Barco’s scarves
Resources and Links
http://www.barcotextiles.blogspot.com/
Summer 2011 in San Lucas Toliman
We created a new class in the Design & Management program in the School of Design Strategies to run in Fall 2011; Small Business Enterprise: DEED. The goal of this class is to sell the products of the artisan groups DEED works with. The first challenge to be addressed is … Continued
Barco, San Lucas Toliman
BARCO, SAN LUCAS TOLIMAN, September 17th, 2011 I visited the women of Barco and was met by a very pleasant and unexpected surprise. Since we (DEED) didn’t have funding this year to continue our work with the women in San Lucas Toliman, it was a great surprise to see the whole … Continued