FANfare Blog

At the end of August 2023, in the two glorious weeks before summer officially ends and everyone girds themselves for a bustling fall, I had the incredibly good fortune to be a visiting curator at Haystack Mountain School of Craft in Deer Isle, Maine. Occupying a writer’s hut on the campus, my goal was to leave with a chunk of my next book written—which just so happens to be on craft schools, so it was a perfect situation.
Stitch Buffalo is a nonprofit textile art center in Buffalo, New York that is committed to empowering refugee and immigrant women through the sale of their handcrafted goods, inspiring creativity and inclusion through community education, and stewarding the environment through the re-use of textile supplies.
Bojagi Journey 2023 is an international exhibition of bojagi-inspired works currently on view at the Pacific Northwest Quilt & Fiber Arts Museum in La Conner, Washington, through October 8, 2023.
The Customs House Artisan Incubator is one of the many residency opportunities managed by Cape Breton Centre for Craft & Design (the Centre) on the island of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada. It has been supporting craftspeople on the island for more than 50 years and running residencies for 15.
The PHES Gallery in Carlsbad, California, received a Fiber Art Now Gathering Grant in support of their exhibition and poetry reading event for Story Quilts and Poetry, May 21 through July 8, 2023. PHES Gallery is owned by artists and educators Paul Henry and Ellen Speert.
Chase’s sculptural art was born of her love of drawing and a “what if” sense of exploration. She began experimenting, creating paper sculptures through sewing and hand cutting. She made paper dresses, which were never “just dresses.”
Imagine discovering a language that provided the words and understanding to describe your creative life to others, in new and provocative ways. Imagine other creatives speaking the language, too, and the camaraderie that could arise from these shared experiences.
“The Idea of letting go, letting the wild and nature take over is a common thread,” said Moira Bateman, the McKnight Fiber Art Fellow whose new body of work is a complete abandonment to nature. “I feel as if it’s freer work . . . Letting go of control and ALLOWING.”
Why are you a maker? What compels you to continue creating even when your days are busy, your schedule is crunched, you are in a funk, or maybe your “clever idea tank” is drier than the Sahara? Why do you still gather items found on your walks; organize and reorganize them; collect them in your windowsills; try to braid, knit, paint, sew, stencil, or otherwise process and combine them together to make something new?
This breathtaking exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum presents more than 100 textiles, including kimonos, furnishings, robes, and other cloths from Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas.
No matter the reason for taking a photo of your art, but particularly, if you hope to have it published, you have to take great photos. In order to show your artwork in its best light (no pun intended), it’s important to think about where and how you’re taking the photo.
Stitching together has been part of the fiber artist community for centuries. What might those gatherings look like after a pandemic? At our weekly virtual meetings, the Fiber Art Now team explored ideas around how we might support and encourage meaningful gatherings for our community.

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