Manufacture Nationale de Tapisseries

The Manufacture Nationale de Tapisseries de Thiès is one of the most distinctive cultural institutions in West Africa — a large atelier where skilled weavers translate paintings and designs by African artists into monumental tapestries, some of them several metres across. The process is slow, painstaking, and beautiful to watch: weavers work from the back of the loom, guided by a small model of the design tacked to the frame, building up the image thread by thread.

Visits to the workshop can be arranged; the staff are accustomed to showing visitors the production process. The showroom displays both completed tapestries and work in progress. Many of the finished pieces are commissions for Senegalese government buildings or international clients, but smaller works are sometimes available for sale. The workshop is located on the road to the station in central Thiès.

things to do museum sight
A story
The tapestry workshop was founded in 1966 as part of Senegal's post-independence cultural programme under President Léopold Sédar Senghor, himself a poet who made the arts central to national identity. The first series of tapestries was based on paintings by Iba NDiaye and Papisto Boy. The workshop has since woven designs by painters from across Africa, producing oversized textile artworks that hang in government buildings and embassies around the world.