The Woven Path was a ten-day cultural mobility and artistic research project implemented in June 2026 across Sierra Leone. The project aimed to reconnect contemporary design practice with the country’s living textile heritage through direct engagement with women master weavers, cultural custodians, and creative practitioners in Makeni, Bo, and Kono.

The Woven Path is part of The Culture Moves Salone project which is funded by
KEA European Affairs

Through field visits, interviews, documentation, skills exchange, and collaborative learning, the project created a bridge between rural craft traditions and urban creative industries. The initiative documented weaving techniques, natural dyeing processes, cultural symbolism, and oral histories while fostering relationships between artisans and emerging designers.

The project successfully produced a visual archive, strengthened professional networks, promoted cultural preservation, and highlighted the role of women artisans as custodians of Sierra Leone’s textile heritage.

Project Background

Sierra Leone possesses a rich textile heritage rooted in centuries of weaving traditions. However, many of these practices remain undocumented and disconnected from contemporary creative industries.

The Woven Path was developed to address this gap by facilitating a structured cultural mobility that enabled direct engagement with artisans and communities preserving traditional textile knowledge.

The project recognized that authentic contemporary design requires meaningful engagement with cultural knowledge holders and sought to create opportunities for collaboration rather than extraction.

Project Objectives

The project pursued the following objectives:

1. Document traditional weaving and textile-making practices.
2. Establish relationships with women master weavers.
3. Create a visual and audio archive of Sierra Leone’s textile heritage.
4. Facilitate knowledge exchange between artisans and young creatives.
5. Promote cultural preservation and economic empowerment.
6. Explore future opportunities for collaborative design initiatives.