With Salua Qidan مع سلوى قعدان

حديثي مع سلوى قعدان، قصتها في مواجهة الصعوبات بتبني المرونة والتأقلم، وكيف أن الانفتاح الحقيقي على الفرص يساعد على إيجاد جذور الشخص وربما شغفه في الحياة.

My conversation with Salua Qidan, her story of overcoming tough beginnings by embracing adaptability, and discovering how being truly open to opportunities helps find one’s roots and maybe their passion in life.

(Recorded in Feb, 2023)
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Salua Qidan
Creative Director, Tiraz (tirazcenter.org)
Founder, Folkglory (folkglory.com)

Salua Qidan is a craft heritage researcher, curator and product designer, focused on the traditions of the Levant’s dressmaking and textiles.

Trained as an architect in Jordan in the mid 1990s, she started her career as cofounder of SYNTAX, a multidisciplinary design company in Amman, Jordan, where she specialized in book and exhibition design for art, culture and heritage projects.

Through her work with various cultural institutions she found herself drawn to the heritage of crafts in Palestine, Jordan and Syria. A pivotal moment for her was the start of her collaboration in 2012 with Widad Kawar, the leading collector and authority on the heritage of Palestinian and Arab dressmaking, designing Kawar’s seminal book Threads of Identity.

In 2015 Salua became a founding team member of Tiraz — The Widad Kawar Home for Arab Dress, where she continues to serve as Creative Director. At Tiraz, Salua immersed herself in the knowledge gained from experts and scholarly sources and her numerous encounters with embroiderer women and other craft makers who are keeping the Levant’s fast-eroding traditions and techniques alive.

In 2020 Salua founded Folkglory, a project inspired by her heritage journey. Through Folkglory Salua designs contemporary products for heritage education and traditional craft enthusiasts. Blending original research, curation, documentation and product development, Folkglory aims at spreading the indigenous knowledge and skills embedded in the Levant’s rich dressmaking traditions to a global audience. Folkglory’s first collection of embroidery kits was launched in 2021.

Born in Germany to a Palestinian father and German mother, she moved to Amman aged 15, experiencing both a culture shock as a teenager, but also the beginning of a journey of understanding the roots of the Arab Palestinian and Jordanian side of her heritage. She lives and works in Amman. Listen to “With Salua Qidan مع سلوى قعدان” on Spreaker.