Exhibition „Rich in spirit“

Women from the communities of Stapar, Sombor and Odzaci in the north, partnered with the artisans from the municipality of Pirot launched an initiative to nominate stapar rugs as one of the most traditional handicrafts from Serbia, for entry into the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The initiative was presented at the opening of the exhibition \'Rich in spirit\' in the gallery \'Cedomir Krstic\' in Pirot, where visitors have the opportunity to see samples of stapar and pirot rugs with floral motifs, as well as images and motifs of the Australian Aborigines.

The exhibition was opened by the Mayor of Pirot Vladan Vasic, a member of the City Council of Sombor Nemanja Sarac, Australian Ambassador to Serbia Julia Feeney and President of Ethno Network and Executive Director of NALED, Violeta Jovanovic. This event is part of the activities envisaged by the Agreement on Cooperation between Sombor and Pirot, signed on the initiative of Ethno network and NALED and with the support of the Embassy of Australia. The goal of the MoU is the preservation and promotion of pirot and stapar rugs. Stapar and pirot rugs are the most famous traditional Serbian handicrafts. The strong influence of pirot rugmaking spread to Vojvodina at the beginning of the 20th century, when women from Stapar started using motifs from Pirot as an inspiration for rugmaking. Although stapar rugs date back to the 18th century, nowadays they are no longer produced.

In order to revitalize rugmaking in Serbia, members of the Association for the preservation of traditional crafts \'Grlica\' and \'Ladies Heart\' from Pirot were engaged with artisans from the associations \'Staparke\' from Stapar, \'Zlatne ruke Somborke\' from \'Sombor\' and \'Lenka\' from Odzaci to transfer the experience in rugmaking and preservation of tradition through a series of workshops and consultationg, with the aim of restoring the production of stapar rugs and positioning it as a recognizable national brand.