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“Woven Treasures of Japan’s Tawaraya Workshop” Showcases Japanese Silks and Imperial Costume Traditions

tmpressroom — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:13:07 +0000

Japan’s Tawaraya Workshop has produced exquisite silks for more than 500 years for uses which include Imperial garments and Noh theater costumes. A selection of these precious textiles and kimono will be featured in the unprecedented exhibition “Woven Treasures of Japan’s Tawaraya Workshop” opening at The Textile Museum on March 23. This exhibition was organized with the help of Hyoji Kitagawa, the 18^th-generation head of the workshop, who was recently designated a Living National Treasure by the Japanese government.

The Exhibition

“Woven Treasures” includes 37 pieces on loan from the Tawaraya workshop, including lengths of fabric and completed costumes. This is first time these silks will be exhibited in the United States and English-language research and study of these textiles has been scant. Four uchigi (colorful robes worn underneath formal outer garments) will be displayed, in addition to a kosode robe used in Noh theater. The untailored textiles include silks commissioned for the Imperial Household and the Ise Grand Shrine. The historical basis and aesthetics of each design offer greater understanding Japanese court tradition and culture.

Attention to detail has helped the Tawaraya workshop earn its reputation for producing the finest yusoku orimono (silks in patterns, weaves, and color combinations traditionally reserved for the aristocracy). The workshop bases many of its designs on historical precedents, including ancient textiles (jodai-gire) often preserved in Japan’s Buddhist temples. One example on view is a reconstruction of an 8^th-century twill by Hyoji Kitagawa. In a painstaking effort to recreate this centuries-old design, Kitagawa reformulated an acorn dye and mimicked the ancient practice of wetting yarns before weaving.

One of the only workshops eligible to produce cloth for Imperial ceremonial robes, Tawaraya has a long history of commissions for state celebrations. The workshop created the silk for the robes worn by His Majesty the Emperor Akihito and Her Majesty the Empress Michiko of Japan for their 1989 coronation. “Woven Treasures” features the silks used to make these garments, in addition to silks created for the wedding of Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako.

Untailored silk used in the poetic Noh drama of Japan is also included in the exhibition. While Imperial costume tends to make use of subtle juxtapositions of color and design, the fabrics used for Noh theater enhance the performance with bright hues and large patterns.

The Tawaraya Workshop

The Nishijin neighborhood in Kyoto, Japan ranked alongside Lyon, France and Milan, Italy as one of the world’s greatest centers of luxury silk production for centuries. The Tawaraya workshop, led by Hyoji Kitagawa, was founded more than 500 years ago. Kitawaga learned his craft from his father, Heiro Kitagawa, and both men were designated Living National Treasures by the Japanese government for carrying forward a rich cultural tradition. As head of the workshop, Kitagawa upholds techniques and aesthetic standards passed down many centuries.

“Woven Treasures” opens as the future of the Tawaraya workshop is uncertain; the demand for fine silks has waned in recent years and Kitagawa has not pressured his sons to undertake this challenging career. This exhibition, along with its accompanying exhibition text and complimentary gallery guide, is a rare opportunity to understand a national artistic heritage from the perspective of its maker.

Exhibition Organization and Support
“Woven Treasures of Japan’s Tawaraya Workshop” is part of the National Cherry Blossom Festival, a city-wide event celebrating the 100^th anniversary of the gift of trees from Japan. “Woven Treasures of Japan’s Tawaraya Workshop” is supported by grants from S&R Foundation, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, The Japan Foundation, and Asian Cultural Council.

“Woven Treasures” was curated by Lee Talbot, curator of Eastern Hemisphere Collections, The Textile Museum with the guidance of Hyoji Kitagawa, head of the Tawaraya Workshop.

Download a PDF version of the full-length press release.

High-resolution images are available for download. Request a link to the online gallery.

For more information, contact Katy Clune, Communications and Marketing Manager, kclune@textilemuseum.org, (202) 667-0441, ext. 77.

Images: Uchigi (ceremonial court robe), 21st century. Courtesy of Hyoji Kitagawa. 18^th-generation head of the Tawaraya workshop, Living National Treasure Hyoji Kitagawa.

Filed under: Exhibits, Free, Press Releases

Museum as Muse: The Textile Museum Collection Inspires New Works From Contemporary Artists in “Souring the Museum”

tmpressroom — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:05:23 +0000

The Textile Museum is home to an extraordinary collection of historic textiles. For the exhibition “Sourcing the Museum” these pieces provided inspiration for eleven fiber artists to create new works of art, which will be on view at The Textile Museum from March 23 through August 19, 2012.

Invited to participate by world-renowned weaver and scholar Jack Lenor Larsen, the chosen artists are diverse in background, preferred technique, and aesthetic, but all at the height of their careers. Larsen said of the exhibition, “Witness here the museum as springboard for new responses to earlier, sometimes ancient works. The resulting contemporary textiles are diverse in scale and weight, media and power, and much varied, too, in distance from the mentor work…and, indeed, from the artists’ usual mode of expression.”

Larsen encouraged the participants to move beyond their preferred materials and techniques. The result is an incredible diversity of new textile arts—from a dense photographic tapestry, to a diaphanous silk hanging, to a political straitjacket. These and all of the new works will be displayed alongside the historic pieces that inspired them, underscoring the connection between past and the present.

About the Exhibition

The word “museum” derives from the ancient Greek mouseion—”temple of the Muses”—home of goddesses believed to inspire creativity. “Sourcing the Museum” casts The Textile Museum as muse, as Jack Lenor Larsen sought out contemporary textile artists to more deeply explore the connections between past objects and contemporary inspiration.

Jack Lenor Larsen is internationally known as a textile designer, author, and collector. He is respected as a leader in the field of textile arts, and as an advocate for traditional and contemporary crafts. He began designing textiles in the 1950’s, and his innovations in color and texture have become exemplary of modernist design.

For “Sourcing the Museum,” Larsen assembled artists who would approach the task with superior technical mastery and aesthetic abilities, including Olga de Amaral (Bogota, Colombia), James Bassler (Palm Springs, CA), Polly Barton (Santa Fe, NM), Archie Brennan (New Baltimore, NY), Lia Cook (Berkeley, CA), Helena Hernmarck (Ridgefield, CT), Ayako Nikamoto (Chigasaki, Japan), Jon Eric Riis (Atlanta, GA), Warren Seelig (Rockland, ME), Kay Sekimachi (Berkeley, CA), and Ethel Stein (Croton-on-Hudson, NY).

The 11 invited artists were asked to take a deeper look at pieces from The Textile Museum’s collection of more than 19,000 historical textiles, including examples from East Asia, the Islamic world, Africa, Europe, and the Southern Hemisphere, and spanning over 5,000 years, dating from 3,000 B.C.E. to the present.

Each artist had their own method for selecting a piece from the collection for the project. Some confined themselves to a particular origin,or a specific technique. Jon Eric Riis remembered a work seen on display at the museum decades earlier. Archie Brennan decided to leave the choice to fate, picking his pieces by selecting at random three item numbers from the museum’s database. Once the piece was selected, the artists returned to their studios and created new pieces in response to their chosen “muse.”

On View

Each of the artists diverged from their museum “muse” to different degrees, and in several cases broke away from their usual methods of creation.

Polly Barton, a Santa-Fe-based weaver working primarily in silk, chose a dense, 15^th-century Egyptian rug as her start. The result was three shimmering gossamer panels, reminiscent of the works of Helen Frankenthaler, for whom Barton was once a studio assistant. She keeps the richness of color and lustrous shades of the original carpet but creates an air-and-light catching piece made of sheer and lustrous silk organzine (a material with which she had not previously worked), spanning over seven feet.

Ethel Stein, who will turn 95 this year, took on two different pieces as inspiration, both examples resist-dyed textiles. Her resulting Modernist hanging brings together a similar boldness of color and pattern, while also embracing a more abstract approach to shape.

Weaver Jim Bassler is perhaps the artist most familiar with the kind of challenge presented with “Sourcing the Museum”—he often uses ethnic textiles as a starting point for his work. In this case, a shirt from Myanmar inspired a piece called “My ‘Letterman’ Yantra,” referencing the talismanic inscriptions on the original shirt, meant to offer protection to the wearer. Bassler’s yantra is emblazoned with encouraging slogans “Go Man!”, “Run win!” and “Run won!” meant to push the weaver forward in athletic pursuit.

Lia Cook, whose recent tapestry work has focused on creating photo-realistic images, chose two small, fragmentary pieces from the 6^th- 7^th centuries. “I was fascinated that even though they were made centuries ago they could be very contemporary, with subtle nuances of recognizable human expressions,” she wrote. Her resulting tapestry takes the figures onto a monumental scale, and incorporates her technique of keeping the structure of the weave visible, so that from a distance the image can read almost photographically, but upon closer inspection is made of many individual threads, like the strokes of an Impressionist painting.

Jon Eric Riis is an artist of great reputation, and was named a USA Fellow in 2011, a grant awarded to only 50 outstanding performing, visual, media, and literary artists. His “muse” was a textile he had seen in the museum in the 1970s – a richly embellished Chimu jacket. He took the decorative elements and turned it into something appropriate to the location of Washington DC in an election season–entitled “Congressional Straitjacket.” Riis’ artist statement best describes the piece, woven in meticulous detail: “This [is] a political statement dealing with two large figures, both bound by straitjackets, depicting a figure with an elephant face and the other with a donkey face…”

With a broad range of starting points, it is unsurprising that the results are equally varied: in size, in scope, in technique, and in viewpoint. But all are the finest examples of their craft, and a testament to both the vitality of contemporary textile art and the dynamic relationship between past and present.

Download a PDF version of the full-length press release.

High-resolution images are available for download. Request a link to the online gallery.

For more information, contact Katy Clune, Communications and Marketing Manager, kclune@textilemuseum.org, (202) 667-0441, ext. 77.

Filed under: Exhibits, Free, Press Releases

Upcoming Exhibition Celebrates 2012 as Year of the Dragon

tmpressroom — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:02:21 +0000

In the spirit of the East Asian calendar’s Year of the Dragon, just days after the Chinese New Year, The Textile Museum is opening a playful and colorful exhibition titled “Dragons, Nagas, and Creatures of the Deep” (February 3, 2012 – January 6, 2013). The exhibition presents 16 objects drawn from cultures as diverse as the ancient Mediterranean world, imperial China and contemporary South America, portraying dragons as everything from medieval fire-breathing beasts to friendly and beneficent water gods.

A Global Beast

While dragons are born from fantasy, their depiction is often surprisingly similar across time and place. “Dragons, Nagas, and Creatures of the Deep” reveals these shared stylistic roots.

The English word “dragon” derives from the Greek drákōn, meaning “water snake” or “large serpent.” A 5th-century tunic panel from Egypt depicts a Nereid (sea goddess) riding a mythical horse-fish beast. Water dragons were also common throughout Southeast Asia. In the folklore and decorative arts of India and Southeast Asia, deities taking the form of fantastical snakes, or nagas, abound. Nagas controlled rain—the life-force of rice-growing peoples throughout the region—and were also considered connections to the spirit world. Included in the exhibition are two textiles decorated with nagas from the Lao-Tai people of Laos, precious pieces once used in ritual and shamanistic ceremonies.

Greco-Roman stylizations influenced medieval artists in Western Europe, who began associating dragons with fire. Many Western cultures portrayed dragons as terrifying, fire-breathing beasts to be feared by the common people and destroyed by sword-wielding protectors. Stories of heroes fighting serpentine beasts also play out in ancient Near Eastern cultures, depicted in the exhibition on luxurious velvet from the Safavid dynasty (1501-1722) of present-day Iran.

This exhibition demonstrates contemporary translations of dragon imagery as well: a mola panel from Panama, made by a Kuna woman in the 1960s, playfully interprets a dragon above the colorful letters “D-R-A-G-O-N”. The source for this image is likely a children’s alphabet book.

The Dragon as a Symbol of Power

Whether creatures of good or evil, dragons in every culture were unquestionably powerful, and became a symbol for both prestige and protection.

In China, certain styles of dragons were reserved for use by the emperor and ruling class, and the way they were illustrated was determined by social rules outlined in dynastic laws. For example, use of front-facing dragons was prohibited for anyone below the noble classes. Only the imperial family was permitted to wear dragons with 5 claws. A stunningly woven 18th century coat made during the Qing dynasty includes several dragons with one claw painstakingly removed from each foot—indicating its second owner altered the garment to suit their social standing.

When the Buddhist faith spread to East Asia in the first centuries CE, people in this region began to regard dragons as protectors of Buddha and Buddhist law. A rug which covered a column in a Buddhist temple in Tibet, Mongolia, or western China illustrates an auspicious dragon surrounded by the symbols of Buddhist law. While red flames emanate from its body, this dragon protects from evil and harm.

The Year of the Dragon is said to be a year of energy and change. The image of the dragon has been shifted and reshaped in cultures throughout time and across the world, but they fascinate and delight us in all of their forms.

Download a PDF version of the full-length press release.

High-resolution images are available for download. Request a link to the online gallery.

For more information, contact Katy Clune, Communications and Marketing Manager, kclune@textilemuseum.org, (202) 667-0441, ext. 77.

Details of dragon faces from a dragon robe (China, late 18^th/early 19^th century, TM 1973.30.1, Gift of Brigadier General Regan Fuller), a mola panel (Panama, 1960s, TM 1985.56.56, Donated from the Collection of Jonathan Leonard) and a hip wrapper (Indonesia, 1920s, TM 1985.57.34, Gift of Alice Bradley Sheldon; collected by Mary Hastings Bradley).

Filed under: Exhibits, Free, Press Releases

Central Asian Family Festival on Feb. 12

tmpressroom — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 20:25:06 +0000

Kids explore ikat-dyeing in the Textile Learning Center

Enjoy a family-friendly festival featuring Central Asian music and food as well as hands-on art and textile activities on Saturday, February 12, 12-4 p.m. Visitors can:

Take part in Central Asian dance with the Silk Road Dance Company, including a huge dancing dragon inspired by Uzbek legends
Add Central Asian flare to their outfit by creating a kalpak—or high-crowned hat—and wearing it throughout the festival
Weave their own ikat textile on a pre-warped loom, making an original fabric to take home
Explore the exhibition Colors of the Oasis: Central Asian Ikats with a family guide
Enjoy tea and refreshments

All activities and demonstrations are free and no reservations are required!

Filed under: Education, Free, HelloTxt, Public Programs Tagged: #TMUpdate, Asian Textiles, Central Asia, dc, fabric, fabrics, family, family first, Free, hands-on, ikat, ikats, kalpak, loom, Museum, Non Profit, Public Programs, textile, textile arts, textile museum, washington dc, washingtondc, weave

Channel 5 Fox News Visits Ikat Exhibition

tmpressroom — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 17:09:20 +0000

Paul Raphel at The Textile Museum

For those of you who missed the airing last Friday, November 19, click here to see The TM featured on the “Weekend Events with Paul Raphel” morning show segment on Channel 5 Fox News. Paul and the Fox 5 team stopped by the galleries for a tour of Colors of the Oasis: Central Asian Ikats and learned more about the Saturday, November 20 Arts for Famililies program “Weave Your Own Ikat.” Using hand-looms, children could see the ikat-making process for themselves and take home their own swatch of ikat fabric.

Look forward to the next Arts for Families program – “Children’s Tea Party & Storytelling” on December 18, featuring tea, stories and the chance to try on clothes from Turkmenistan.

Filed under: Education, Free, HelloTxt, Public Programs

The Textile Museum to Kick Off Summer with Annual Two-Day Festival

tmpressroom — Wed, 12 May 2010 16:30:45 +0000

The Textile Museum will hold its 32nd annual Celebration of Textiles on Saturday, June 5, 10 a.m.–4 p.m. and Sunday, June 6, 1-5 p.m. This free festival for all ages, held rain or shine, invites visitors to explore the textile arts and cultures of the world through hands-on activities and artist demonstrations in the museum’s gardens, historic buildings and current exhibitions.

Program highlights for this year’s Celebration of Textiles festival include:

Live musical performances by acoustic roots duo Herb & Hanson (Sat., 2-4 p.m. and Sunday, 3-5 p.m.) who have performed at the Kennedy Center and Strathmore Hall, among other Mid-Atlantic venues
Hands-on activities, including block printing and bracelet making
Spinning, weaving, knitting, embroidery and indigo dyeing demonstrations
Delicious Indian food from Fojol Bros. of Merlindia (available for purchase)
Drawings for gift certificates to Teaism, Restaurant Nora, Kramerbooks and other Dupont Circle area businesses
Live sheep-shearing demonstrations

Please note: Activities and demonstrations vary on Saturday and Sunday. For full program details, visit www.textilemuseum.org. ALL ACTIVITIES ARE FREE.

Celebrating Local Students’ Art

On Saturday from 12:30-1 p.m. a ceremony will be held recognizing the students participating in this year’s Museum-School Partnership: a 1^st grade class from Lafayette Elementary School; a 3^rd grade class from Horace Mann Elementary School; and a 3^rd-5^th mixed grade level class from Matthew G. Emery Educational Center. Through this annual program, the museum educates Washington, D.C. students about textiles and the cultures that produce them, and works with students in the creation and display of their own textile artwork. Their creations will be unveiled on June 5 and will remain on view at The Textile Museum through the month.

Current Exhibitions

Visitors can explore the colorful and whimsical textile designs of three groundbreaking women in the exhibit Art by the Yard: Women Design Mid-Century Britain, on view May 15-September 12, 2010. Also on view is the complementary exhibit The Art of Living: Textile Furnishings from the Permanent Collection, featuring furnishing fabrics from cultures around the world.

History of Celebration of Textiles

The Celebration of Textiles festival started with the goal of inviting people to come in casually and learn about the techniques and cultures represented in the museum’s exhibitions, drawing in new audiences and offering an opportunity for people of all ages to explore the wonder and variety of textile art. While The Textile Museum now provides a variety of opportunities for children to learn about textiles year-round through school programs and the hands-on Activity Gallery of The Textile Learning Center, the spirit of Celebration of Textiles has remained constant. It aims to build a greater appreciation of the textile arts through intergenerational activities that can be enjoyed by children, parents, grandparents and friends alike.

Celebration of Textiles is funded in part by the D.C. Commission on the Arts & Humanities, an agency supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. The festival is part of the Dupont-Kalorama Museums Consortium’s Museum Walk Weekend. For more information about Walk Weekend, visit www.dkmuseums.com.

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Filed under: Concerts and Special Events, Education, Exhibits, Free, HelloTxt, Press Releases, Public Programs, Uncategorized Tagged: #TMUpdate, Celebration of Textiles, dc, design, Dupont-Kalorama Museums Consortium, exhibition, fabric, fabrics, family, family first, Free, hands-on, interior design, Islamic Textiles, Museum, Museum Walk Weekend, museum-school partnership, Non Profit, press release, Public Programs, textile, textile arts, textile museum, washington dc, washingtondc

The Textile Museum to participate in 27th annual Museum Walk Weekend

tmpressroom — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 14:42:02 +0000

The Textile Museum, part of the Dupont-Kalorama Museums Consortium (DKMC), is pleased to announce its participation in the 27th Annual Museum Walk Weekend, showcasing the art, history, and culture of two historic Washington, D.C. neighborhoods this summer. Anderson House, Dumbarton House, Fondo del Sol Visual Arts Center, General Federation of Women’s Clubs, Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site, Meridian International Center, National Museum of American Jewish Military History, The Phillips Collection, The Textile Museum, and the Woodrow Wilson House will open their doors free of charge for this weekend-long celebration and chance to stretch your legs and your mind.
Museum Walk Weekend offers a variety of free activities for all ages. This year’s highlights include special museum exhibitions (covering everything from mid-century art and design to a president’s beloved walking sticks), DC Jazz Festival’s Jazz ‘n’ Families Fun Days at The Phillips Collection, popular food vendors, and a photo contest celebrating these neighborhood museums organized by Washington City Paper. Stay tuned to City Paper Events for more details about entry and prizes.
For the second year in a row, DKMC is also teaming up with the Washington Area Bicyclists Association to make Walk Weekend bicyclist friendly by providing a safe bike route and leading rides between sites.
An information table for the public, providing schedules and maps, will be situated at Dupont Circle on Saturday, June 5 and at the Dupont Circle FRESHFARM Market on Sunday, June 6.
The 27th Annual Museum Walk Weekend media sponsor is Washington City Paper. Museum Walk Weekend is supported by Cultural Tourism DC, with additional support provided by the Renaissance Dupont Circle Hotel.
Note: Not all museums will be open both days; event held rain or shine.
For more information or images, visit www.dkmuseums.org or contact Katy Clune at kclune@textilemuseum.org.

To view the press release (PDF), click here.

Filed under: Concerts and Special Events, Education, Exhibits, Free, Press Releases, Public Programs Tagged: Dupont-Kalorama Museums Consortium, family, Free, Museum, Museum Walk Weekend, Non Profit, press release, Public Programs, washington dc

This week’s programs at The TM postponed

tmpressroom — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:51:19 +0000

The Textile Museum remains closed today due to inclement weather. Please visit the museum’s website or call 202-667-0441 for the most current information on opening status.

The Textile Museum has also rescheduled the following programs originally planned for this week:

LUNCHTIME GALLERY TALK
Sourcing the West
POSTPONED TO WEDNESDAY, FEB. 17, 12 PM
Led by Rebecca A.T. Stevens, Consulting Curator, Contemporary Textiles. Free; no reservations required.

EVENINGS AT THE TM
Creative Impulses: Japanese Fashion and Textiles
POSTPONED TO FRIDAY, MARCH 26, 6 PM
Presented by Yoshiko Wada. Fee: $20/members; $25/non-members. Advance registration required; space is limited. SOLD OUT. To be added to the waiting list, call (202) 667-0441, ext. 64. Evenings at The TM is sponsored by Eleanor T. Rosenfeld.

MEMBERS’ GALLERY TALK AND TOUR
The Art of Living: Textile Furnishings from the Permanent Collection
POSTPONED TO SUNDAY, FEB. 21, 1 PM
Led by Associate Curator Lee Talbot. Free; reservations required. Call (202) 667-0441, ext. 64. Limited to 35 participants.

PUBLIC GALLERY TALK AND TOUR
The Art of Living: Textile Furnishings from the Permanent Collection
POSTPONED TO SUNDAY, FEB. 21, 2 PM
Led by Associate Curator Lee Talbot. Free; no reservations required. Limited to 35 participants.

MATSURI: A MIDWINTER JAPANESE FESTIVAL FOR FAMILIES
POSTPONED TO SUNDAY, MARCH 7, 1-5 PM
This free festival offers hands-on art activities, demonstrations and performances for all ages. Free; no reservations required. Presented in cooperation with the Japan-America Society of Washington, D.C.

Filed under: Education, Free, HelloTxt, Press Releases, Public Programs Tagged: #TMUpdate, dc, design, evenings at the TM, exhibition, fabric, fabrics, family, family first, Free, hands-on, interior design, Museum, Non Profit, press release, Public Programs, textile, textile arts, textile museum, textilemuseum, washington dc, washingtondc

Upcoming TM Exhibit Features Textile Designed by the Late Artist Kenneth Noland

tmpressroom — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:08:58 +0000

A textile designed by the celebrated American abstract artist Kenneth Noland, who passed away on January 5, 2010, will be featured in an exhibition opening February 12, 2010 at The Textile Museum in Washington, D.C. The piece, Arizona Sky, dates to 1996 and was one of a series of tapestries designed by Noland and made by Navajo weavers.

Arizona Sky, woven by Mary Lee Begay and designed by Kenneth Noland

The textile will be featured in the exhibition The Art of Living: Textile Furnishings from the Permanent Collection, on view at The Textile Museum February 12, 2010 through January 9, 2011. The exhibit highlights the historical and cultural breadth of the museum’s collection through the display of 17 furnishing fabrics, including rugs, chair covers, cushions, wall hangings, and other textiles used in domestic interiors. The Art of Living provides a historical context for the museum’s major spring/summer exhibition, Art by the Yard: Women Design Mid-Century Britain, which focuses on the careers of three 20th-century British designers and the socio-historical circumstances that informed their design choices.

Arizona Sky illustrates the collaborative effort between Noland (1924-2010), Navajo weaver Mary Lee Begay (1941- ), and tapestry producer Gloria F. Ross (1923-1998), who was also a trustee at The Textile Museum. Ross endeavored to heighten public appreciation of tapestry as an art form, bringing painters and weavers together to create outstanding works of textile art. In 1979, Ross began to work with Navajo weavers to create tapestries based on designs by Noland, whose bold geometric paintings she saw as well suited for Navajo looms and colors. Navajo weavers typically visualize their designs mentally, rarely committing them to paper, but for this unusual collaboration six Navajo weavers agreed to work from Noland’s painted designs.

“The art world has lost an influential and inspiring figure with the passing of Kenneth Noland,” says Lee Talbot, The Textile Museum’s Associate Curator for Eastern Hemisphere Collections and exhibition curator for The Art of Living: Textile Furnishings from the Permanent Collection. “We are proud to honor his legacy by showcasing his design in this exhibition.”

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Posted in Exhibits, Free, HelloTxt, Press Releases Tagged: #TMUpdate, abstract, art, arts, chevron, color field, Crafting Design, dc, design, designs, exhibition, fabric, fabrics, Free, furnishings, gloria ross, kenneth noland, mary lee begay, Museum, navajo, Non Profit, press release, textile, textile arts, textile museum, textilemuseum, washington dc, washingtondc, weaving, woven

Arts for Families Program at The TM on Jan. 23

tmpressroom — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:51:04 +0000

MEDIA ALERT: January 13, 2010

WHAT: Explore The Textile Museum as a family during this ongoing program series. In this session, learn how people around the world communicate through fashion. Participants will visit stations where they will learn what their clothes communicate about textiles (Knit or weave? Natural or synthetic? Dyed or Applied?). They will identify the components of their own clothes and examine the function of different kinds of clothing for comfort, protection, warmth and other needs. Finally, they will create their own outfit by cutting out and applying fabric to paper fashion templates. This program is free with no reservations required.

WHEN: Saturday, January 23, 2010, 2-4 PM

WHERE: The Textile Museum, 2320 S Street NW, Washington DC 20008; Metro: Dupont Circle, Q Street exit

MEDIA CONTACT: Cyndi Bohlin, (202) 667-0441, ext. 78 or cbohlin@textilemuseum.org

Posted in Education, Free, HelloTxt, Public Programs Tagged: family, family first, Free, hands-on, Museum, Non Profit, Public Programs, textile, textile arts, textile museum, textilemuseum, washington dc, washingtondc