The Georgian State Museum of Folk and Applied Arts is one of the oldest museums of Georgia, which holds specialized collections carpets, textiles, ethnic costumes, silver, wooden, stone, painting and drawing collections, the rich archives, photo and glass negatives. The Museum was opened in specially designed building in Mushtaidi Gardens, in 1913. The collections were based on the artifacts, collected by The Caucasian Handicrafts Comity, which was established in 1899 by Russian Empire. The goals of the Comity were to collects, to study, to preserve the existed handicraft centers all over the Caucasia, to implement the traditional motives into the contemporary decorative and Folk Art. These concepts were based on the ideas of the artistic movement “Arts and Crafts” with which the members of the museum were familiar. Alongside with the Permanent exhibition space, the comity and Museum had the designers’ studio and several artistic workshops in Mushtaidi Gardens.
In the period of the Independency from 1918 till 1921, the Museum lost the connections with it`s workshops in Azerbaijan, Armenia and Dagestan. After the Bolshevik occupation in 1921, the financial support from the government also was limited. But Museum still had the important materials, technique equipment and scientific potential, which stimulated the several interesting realized projects, the collections also were enriched.
In 1920 s Museum lost its building in Mushtaidi Gardens, changed several times the location and since 2006 till today is based in the specially acquired building on Shalva Dadiani street 28.
