For our November artist blog, we’re looking at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, fiber artist Kathryn Pannepacker and her recent solo exhibition, You Are Welcome Here. We’ve Saved a Chair for You, at the William Way LGBTQ Community Center.
Pannepacker shared that this work has been coming together for just over a year. Coming back to William Way meant a lot to her—she last showed there in 2012—and she described the space as welcoming, open, and the kind of place where people actually walk in and spend time. With that encouragement, she set a deadline and dove into her studio practice to see how she could take her marker drawings and translate them into big, woven, shaggy tapestries. At the same time, she has been doing a once-a-week apprenticeship in chair caning, surrounded by chairs and the stories connected to those chairs. Over time, the chair became more than an object—it became a symbol for who’s missing, who we miss, who we still hope to see again, and who we want to make room for.
Marker drawings that reference the tapestry: I Saved a Chair for You; 2025; mixed fibers; hand woven shag tapestry on pipe loom; 54 x 54 in.
Marker drawings that reference the tapestry: I Saved a Chair for You; 2025; mixed fibers; hand woven shag tapestry on pipe loom; 55 x 52 in.
In the show, she placed six hand-caned chairs in a circle. That one gesture changed the experience. Instead of just “looking at art,” it felt like you were actually welcome to step into the space. Her woven pieces brought color, movement, and narrative. Up close, you could see text woven right into the surfaces—words looping and repeating in a way that felt like lived memory. Not tidy. Not linear. Just real.
Housing First; 2025; mixed fibers, knots; hand woven sampler tapestries and “patch shags” on frame loom; 53 x 24 in.
Field of Poppies; 2025; mixed fibers, knots; hand woven “patch shags” on frame loom, embroidery; 62 x 24 in.
Pannepacker’s work in Philadelphia has always blended artmaking with compassion and community. She has spent years working with marginalized people—folks navigating housing insecurity, recovery, grief, or a tough change. Fiber becomes a way to pause, breathe, touch something soft, and find a moment of grounding. Weaving gives structure. Drawing gives immediacy. Her practice moves between those two places, a rhythm of slow/fast, tactile/expressive.
Narcan Prayer Rug-USA/LGBT; 2025; mixed fibers, knots; hand woven “patch shags” on frame loom; 28 x 27 in.
This new exhibition at William Way continued that spirit and invited visitors into the process. Over the run of the show there were community weaving sessions, a chair-caning workshop, and even a weaving vigil. These weren’t “extras.” They were part of the heart of the exhibition. They turned the gallery from a viewing space into a shared making space.
The overall feeling of You Are Welcome Here was that the gallery became a temporary home for connection. The work has emotional resonance, but it’s offered in a generous, open way—without heaviness. The circle of chairs, the scale of the tapestries, the softness of fiber, the presence of repeating text . . . all of it quietly invited people to lean in, look closer, and feel themselves included in the room.
Cami Smith is the Fiber Art Now media manager, community engagement coordinator, and a mixed-media artist.
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