Tbilisi's long-standing State Silk Museum going under major renovation

The State Silk Museum of Georgia, one of the oldest museums in the country, will undergo a major three-year renovation of its infrastructure and an update of its programmes in a multi-institutional project starting this year.

The 1887-founded museum, detailing the production and use of silk and taking its heritage in the historical Silk Road that involved Georgia, will have its building - enjoying the status of a national cultural monument - overhauled within the effort.

Revealed by the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia on Monday, the €200,000 renovation will reinforce the museum building, install a drainage system in its base and rehabilitate its exterior and interior along with setting up heating and ventilation systems.

An additional €50,000 will be used for modernising and developing educational and artistic programmes of the venue, leading the institution to become part of national and regional tourism plans and develop networking with silk museums across the world.

A dyed silk thread collection dated back to the 1890s and preserved at the museum. Photo: State Silk Museum.

Among the earliest silk museums launched anywhere around the world, the Tbilisi venue has collections of both locally produced silk exhibits - with Georgian silk crafts recognised as the country's intangible cultural heritage in 2018 - and items originating in over 60 countries abroad.

The museum also boasts a library of natural sciences books in over a dozen European, Asian and Middle Eastern languages dated between 18th-19th centuries.

Their ongoing displays include an exhibition of seashells, an educational programme for young visitors based on a dye collection at the museum and a show presenting "the complete process of silk making: from silkworm to fabrics".

Contemporary displays like Night Intervention - where creatives bring installations as a "direct response to the architecture, history and the purpose" of the venue - have also been hosted at the venue.

The culture ministry is joined in a memorandum governing the renovation project by the Tbilisi Development Fund, Tbilisi City Hall, the International Association of Francophone Mayors and the State Silk Museum itself.