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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I am writing in my capacity as a research assistant with the University of Victoria, under the supervision of Dr. Darlene Clover and Dr. Kathy Sanford. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We are reaching out to you about a new research/potential future exhibition project entitled </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Cultures of Head Coverings</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, to see if you have existing collections that we can learn from. This is a joint effort between the University of Victoria (Professors Darlene Clover and Kathy Sanford) and the Royal British Columbia Museum (Curator Dr. Tzu-I Chung). </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This new project is built upon the idea of </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Cultures of Headscarves</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, a travelling multi-media exhibition that was created by a group of women artists, curators and academics connected with the Women’s Museums in Bonn and Nuremberg, Germany. Their aim was to use the exhibition to tackle sexist xenophobia and create a space for public dialogue. It drew extensively on archival materials in Germany and beyond to tell stories of the histories of women who have worn head coverings for cultural, traditional, religious, climate, et cetera reasons. By focusing on both the historical and contemporary wearing of various types of headscarves, that exhibition drew attention to complexity, ubiquity, normalcy, types of usage as well as the relations of power manifest in these pieces of cloth. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Our </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Cultures of Head Coverings </span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Project is at its initial stage, and we wish to focus on stories of women in British Columbia who wore/wear head coverings that have special meanings to them. We would like to find out if there are possible images and narratives you may hold in your Archives that could inform our research into such stories. We are looking to identify possible images, objects, and archival materials. Any advice/directions from you would be most appreciated.</span></p>
<p>If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We are happy to call you or arrange a zoom meeting. My email is <a href="mailto:tlmurphy@uvic.ca">tlmurphy@uvic.ca</a> .</p>
<p>Thank you, <span style="font-weight: 400;">Tracey Murphy </span></p>
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