On June 17, 2009, the Mayor’s office of San Francisco, the Indonesian Consulate, the California College of the Arts welcomed the batik collection of Ann Dunham, the late beloved mother of President Barack Hussein Obama.

Much thanks to the Alhadi / Usman family, we were given invites to attend this exclusive event. The photo gallery slideshow above is also on our Flickr page: Ann Dunham Batik Collection

A Lady Found a Culture in Its Cloth: Barack Obama’s Mother and Indonesian Batiks

This exhibition features 20 large fabrics and two scarves from the batik collection of Ann Dunham, President Barack Obama’s late mother. The collection has been in storage for many years and this is a valuable opportunity for the public to see it. The presentation is part of a national tour that is also passing through New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, and Washington DC this summer.

Indonesia is home to the ancient tradition of batik, in which fabric is decorated using a wax-resist dyeing process. Batiks are often intricately patterned and vividly colored, and they come in a wide variety of styles, from classic to contemporary.

The San Francisco presentation of the exhibition will also feature selected works by students in the Textiles and Fashion Design programs at California College of the Arts. These works will complement Dunham’s collection and indicate some of the contemporary directions this centuries-old art has taken. (Source: California College of the Arts)

Press release link.