Weavers\' colony in Stara planina

A second weavers colony brought together fifteen skilled weavers from all over Serbia into the magnificent landscape of Stara planina, to weave the motifs from Pirot rugs, one of the most beautiful traditional handicrafts. Weavers colony is organized by the cities Sombor and Pirot under the cooperation agreement of 2014, which was concluded on the initiative of NALED, Ethno Network and the Embassy of Australia.

The aim of the two cities is to preserve and modernize the skills in making Pirot and Stapar rugs, and get youth interested to engage in old crafts and primarily provide support to women who produce traditional handicrafts to secure permanent employment and stable source of income.

The leaders of these cities with the help of Ethno network, as well as national associations dealing with preserving tradition, define and implement a number of joint activities that foster the exchange of knowledge in the field of traditional rug making - seminars, specialized workshops, thematic exhibitions and promotional events, as well as studies and activities to protect hand woven rugs as an important element of our cultural heritage. It was agreed that in the budgets of these cities gender-sensitive items that will be used to finance the continuity of programs to support gender equality and women\\\'s economic empowerment. Thus, cooperation between Pirot and Sombor have already brought concrete results and set the model to which other communities can look up if they want to connect with themselves allied communities and thus promote the mutual development.

Weavers colony was visited the Mayor of Pirot Vladan Vasic, Ambassador of Australia Julia Feeney, President of Ethno Network and NALED Executive Director Violeta Jovanović, and representatives of the city of Sombor and cultural department of the US Embassy. On that occasion, VIP guests delivered the award for the best hand wowven piece to Ana Ilić Panjković, and together they visited some of the biggest attractions and sights in S