Support the Museum

Home | About the Museum | The Collection | Stories of the Cloths | Support the Museum | Events & Links | Contact us

Accessible only on the World Wide Web, the virtualMuseum has no showrooms, no galleries, and no need of large amounts of expensive display space. The Museum requires only minimal ongoing funding for registration of the web name and for hosting fees for the site.

However, it needs your help.

First, it needs a network of people willing to contribute articles about tais and their place in East Timorese culture, for inclusion in our Stories of the Cloths page. Articles can be short or long. They can lean towards the anthropological, art history, thesis, or personal experiences in the field. The Museum will find a place for them all. They can be original works, or derived from existing works of the author. If someone contributes a useful perspective that was written decades ago, we will use it. If someone contributes notes on current field work, we will use that also. We will accept articles that comment on other articles, as long as the comments are constructive. We ask that you send articles as computer files, although we might be able to deal with printed articles as long as they are clearly printed.

Second, as described in the About the Museum page, the Museum will obtain images by obtaining permission from existing owners, both individuals and institutions, to display their pieces on the site. If you are willing to give us permission to display your pieces, please email us: we will happily give credit on the site to all who give this permission, but we will also respect your privacy if that is your preference.

Finally, we are always on the lookout for web pages related to East Timorese textiles. If you know of any relevant pages, please email us with the URL (the page address) and we will use them to create a Links page. We will not copy and use any existing web materials without permission.