THE VIRTUOUS CIRCLE
Traditional Arts Limited has been formed to support the continued vitality of traditional approaches to art and design by commissioning and selling decorative objects of the highest quality.
The products in the core collection have been designed by students and alumni of The Prince's School of Traditional Arts, in accordance with principles of harmony enshrined in the artistic traditions of the world's great cultures. Common to all these traditions are ideas about line and proportion and about what constitutes beauty-derived from the order of the natural world. The Company's products are alive with contemporary creativity that draws its nourishment from these principles.
MESSAGE FROM
HRH THE PRINCE OF WALES
For some years now, through my School of Traditional Arts I have endeavoured to ensure that the great traditions of design and craftsmanship, which have been handed down from one generation to another over countless years are maintained and nurtured. As a result my School of Traditional Arts has been training young people from all over the world in these traditions at a time when they were fast disappearing and in danger of dying out altogether. Our aim is not preservation for preservation's sake, but rather to continue to respond to the promptings of an ancient wisdom as relevant today as it has always been. Traditional principles of form, pattern and colour (as manifested in Islamic and other traditional arts) are derived from an observation of the fundamental archetypes that characterise the physical structures of Nature. The result is that work produced in accordance with these principles possesses a beauty with as much power to move us today as it was always had; and the great joy of traditional approaches to design is that they can bring this natural beauty into the world of everyday objects.
Traditional Arts is also, I believe, profoundly important because of what it has to teach us about the nature of our shared humanity. The greatest repositories of the traditional approach are the design traditions of the world's great faiths, and what is fascinating about these traditions is how they all share the same principles of beauty derived from Nature. As a result, it is not too much to say that my great hope is that promotion of traditional art can do something to foster greater tolerance and understanding between different faiths and cultures.
The foundation of the Traditional Arts trading company completes what might have be termed the virtuous circle, since I believe passionately that the enduring relevance of the traditional art makes it economically sustainable. Our aim through the company is to demonstrate that fact, by bringing to market the work of the designers and craftsmen who keep alive the traditional methods, and by ensuring that the profits from our trading activity go to support the continued training of young people in these living traditions.
