Hi there!
Collecting knowledge and collecting thoughts are the basis of understanding! For decades, The IK Foundation has initiated and implemented extensive, often groundbreaking, global interdisciplinary research and public outreach projects – what we simply call “Promoting Natural & Cultural History”!
The last decade's projects have involved fieldwork, the review of collections and archives, the establishment of a completely new field station concept, and extensive publications in both print and digital formats. Of course, all these efforts have also taken their strength from the people involved and the organisation. At the same time as we have carried out all these works, the world – as it has always done – has changed around us. Pandemics, wars, strange political ideas, and associated changes in society and its people mean that IK, as an organisation, must collect its thoughts.
Why do we have to do it? In addition to the above-mentioned changes in our surroundings, IK, as a completely independent organisation, must be able to face the future by both understanding it and upholding our innermost mantra of collecting and publicising knowledge in the long term, and, if possible, freely and democratically!
When IK enters its fifth decade within a year, we will be able to meet the challenges and exciting projects with an updated perspective that we ourselves understand and, not least, others also understand. We can do this by – as previously announced – implementing the organisation's update to IK v.4, which is currently underway.
When will you see the results of IK v.4? You can already see the results in some departments of The IK Workshop Society. Major changes are underway as the organisation has collected its thoughts for the next decade and can therefore present an even more up-to-date, future-oriented website, projects and enterprises sometime in 2026 and 2027.
In the meantime, IK is continuing with digital publications and the distribution of printed books from BOOKS & ART. By ordering books directly from IK, you support our long-term work, as does choosing to visit current crowdfunding projects via THE DONATION ROOM — The IK Foundation's ongoing work relies on your support and generosity — consider donating today to help us continue making a meaningful impact.
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SMALL BIG NEWS
UPCOMING IN THE iTEXTILIS ESSAY COLLECTION | Over the next two months, iTEXTILIS will publish new essays exploring the intersections of natural history and textile traditions. The series Fieldwork — The Linnaean Way continues, offering rediscovered insights into the global networks for collecting plants, seeds, insects, and birds, and examining how these specimens were transported, preserved, and documented. The essays will also feature period illustrations that highlight the practical challenges of fieldwork — including the importance of climate-appropriate clothing.
A separate visual essay will explore the history of yarn preparation, focusing on 18th- and 19th-century tools such as yarn swifts and winders. Through artworks and surviving artefacts, the essay will reveal how these devices shaped domestic life, leisure, and the household economy, playing a crucial role in knitting, embroidery, and other textile crafts.
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