Florentini Kaloutsi

IIn 1991, an exhibition dedicated to the weaving art of Florentini Kaloutsis (1890-1978) was organized by the Board of Directors of the Lyceum of Chania. For the needs of the exhibition, textile samples, woven objects and designs for the loom were given to the Lyceum mainly by her son Georgios Kaloutsis. After the end of the exhibition, most of the objects remained at the Lyceum for study by the then president, Zoe Mitsotakis, who in 1999, auth-ored the book “Florentini Kaloutsi and the Art of Crete” published by the Benaki Museum. In 2019, an exhibition of the entire work of Florentini Kaloutsis was organized at the Municipal Art Gallery of Chania, under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and with the participation of the Lyceum. During the process of pre-paring the exhibition, we found out how fragile fabrics are, and especially the overused paper designs, which suggested the urgent need for both their digitization and their preservation. The exhibition of the Municipal Gallery was scheduled to last 5 months but due to the pandemic it stopped two months earlier. Therefore, the necessity of the digital presentation through the internet, became obvious, as the digital way of presentation offers the advantage to expand the potential stakeholders both spatially and tempo-rally. More data on the value of Florentini’s work are listed in the catalog of the exhibition of the Municipal Art Gallery of Chania: https://ayla.culture.gr/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/ARTS-AND-CRAFTS-THE-BENEFICIAL-CRETE -OF-FLORENTINI-SKOULOUDIS-KALOUTSIS-1890-1971.pdf. With the financing of the Ministry of Culture, the digitization and documented recording of the objects created by Florentini has began, which, after the generous donation of Georgios Kaloutsis, and other donors, constitute now in the collection of the Lyceum of Chania. Part of the digitized record is presented on this website. The goal of the Ly-ceum is the digitization and online presentation of all Florentine’s designs and objects, which are in various collections in Chania and Athens, along-side with the physical presentation, in an especially dedicated part ft the Ly-ceum building.