Previous Events

Since ancient days, textile terms have offered a way to talk about storytelling: The storyteller weaves a story together. The reader follows the thread of a narrative. The story unspools and unfolds. In this online event, a weaver, a novelist, and a scholar talk about how textiles inspire and renew human connection.

During this program, Edwina Bringle, April Carter Price, and Danielle Lasker presented the past, present, and future of Textiles at Penland School of Craft. Edwina spoke from lived and oral histories of her 50 year relationship with Penland as student, instructor, studio coordinator, and more. April shared her experiences as a lifelong student of Penland, and Danielle shared the current happenings within the studio, and what the future looks like at Penland.

For more than 700 years, the legacy cloth, lubugo (barkcloth), made from the mutuba tree (ficus natalensis) has been used to clothe Ugandans, bury the dead and mark sacred ceremonies in Uganda. In 2005, it was designated as an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO to be preserved and protected. Today, it is inspiring contemporary artists, designers, scientists, scholars and researchers locally, regionally, continentally and globally.

Dispositif d’Initiatives pour les Métiers de l’Artisanat (DIMA) is a nonprofit vocational training school located in Niamey, Niger, offering programs in weaving, tailoring, and leather working. This conversation about DIMA was presented by Soumana Saley, the President and Founder of DIMA, Judith Sen, DIMA textile design volunteer, and Dr. Genevieve Hill-Thomas, educator and DIMA volunteer.

Tucked in a small studio near the sea in Beirut, Espace Fann is a creative school offering university-level art and design courses. Amidst the covid pandemic, a severe economic meltdown, an energy crisis, and the Beirut explosion in 2020, Espace Fann has continued to provide healing, education, and sanctuary to the community, through the arts.

A conversation with members of the team coordinating Churro Week, an annual event in Northern New Mexico raising awareness about the importance of the Navajo-Churro sheep and its deep local roots.

For centuries, quilting has been used as a way to bring attention to social issues of great significance, such as women’s suffrage. “Los Desconocidos: The Migrant Quilt Project” exhibition, currently on display at the Arizona History Museum, features a collection of handmade quilts that memorialize migrants who have died seeking refuge in the United States. Each quilt carries the names of those who have been identified or simply states “desconocido” or “unknown” for those who have not.

Indigo has been used  to dye textiles for thousands of years, spanning cultures and continents. The blue produced by indigo is recognized and beloved worldwide, while the plant processing methods and textile designs produced in various cultures are quite diverse. This panel discussion features contemporary textile artists who work within various indigo traditions.

Around the World in 80 Fabrics poses the question, ”Can our clothing choices help repair and restore instead of destroy our dwindling natural and cultural resources?” To answer that question, the ATW80F team invites us to join in exploring common and uncommon fiber possibilities and the makers behind them.

Over a decade ago, weaver and natural dyer Rebecca Burgess founded Fibershed, a system of regional and regenerative fiber systems that build soil & protect the health of our biosphere. Fibershed has grown into an international movement, and influences every aspect of sustainable textile production, from growing fiber, natural dyeing, local processing and production, and more.

This panel discussion features the very successful Acadian Brown Cotton Project, which strives to document, preserve and promote Louisiana’s unique natural brown heirloom cotton.

The 18th International Folk Art Market (IFAM) was held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the weekend of July 8 – 10, with 164 artisans from 48 countries and thousands of visitors and buyers from far and wide. Many members of WARP participate in IFAM as volunteers at all levels, and our July panel presented information that would-be IFAM participants would benefit from knowing. 

Community stewardship includes both honoring the past and safeguarding the future. In many textile communities, age-old traditions merge with new innovations. For our 2022 conference, WARP brought together speakers from textile communities around the world to discuss questions artisans face in our ever-changing world.

There is no end of conversation about passing on traditions from grandmother to mother to daughter for millennia, but nearly always the speakers are outsiders or the adults who are doing the passing on.  We were thrilled to give the podium to two young women, teenagers involved in the program, to talk about what it means to them to be inheriting these traditions. 

Continuing Textile Traditions: Ukraine was a special program to raise relief funds for Ukraine. WARP hosted Ukrainian textile artists Halyna Shepko (New York), Daryna Alieksieienko (Kyiv), and Yaroslava Tkachuk (Lviv) for a discussion about their work within the Ukrainian weaving traditions. 

Representing cultures spanning millennia and a significant part of the globe, the speakers on Continuing Textile Traditions of the Arab World told us of the richness of Arab culture as shown through its textiles. 

The presenters on this panel discussion work with women-led groups, indigenous and Ladina, rural and city, small and large. Their work includes weaving, embroidering, and sewing, among other artistic endeavors, and their programs have social elements geared toward achieving a sustainable livelihood for the women and their families. 

A Sheep’s Tale: Preserving the Churro featured speakers who have devoted their work to conservation of the Navajo-Churro sheep. You are invited to watch the program recording to learn about the importance of this heritage sheep breed to communities in the American Southwest.

This panel showcased museums whose focus is on indigenous textiles and the communities who produce them. The presenters, including weavers, writers, and curators, represent a diverse range of backgrounds. 

This panel featured three WARP members bringing us tales of their work and writing coming from both the east and west hemispheres. The three are authors of books about textile processes, culture, and communities in comfortable North American homes, towns and villages across Nigeria and Guatemala, and refugee camps in Mexico. Their writing includes stories from centuries ago and on up to the present. 

This panel features three WARP Members who give textile-focused tours. Each has designed adventures to broaden the perspectives of textile lovers while simultaneously helping to promote and sustain traditional craftspeople and their skills. 

This panel features the founders of three organizations who promote textile artisans in India. Each of these organizations works to preserve traditional textile techniques of India while creating contemporary apparel designs. 

In celebration of the Peace Corp’s 60th Anniversary, this Zoom panel presented three WARP members who served in the Peace Corps in Africa in the 1960s and 70s.

WARP’s Annual Meeting brings our community together for education, fellowship, and networking. We held WARP’s 2021 annual meeting online via Zoom, enabling us to welcome attendees from all over the world. The presenters explored various topics relating to the significance of textiles in strengthening communities through the theme of Unraveling Borders, Weaving Networks.

View our full program of speakers, and watch recordings of the presentations and panel discussions.

This panel discussion, Continuing Textile Traditions: Living Textiles, featured three WARP members who create textiles with a focus on community engagement. These artists all make a living through their textile work, and also live a textile-focused life, using textiles as a vehicle for inclusivity, education, and a sustainable future.

A panel discussion with Elroy Natachu Jr., Sara Borchert and Sharon Gordon Donnan.

A panel discussion with Porfirio Gutierrez, Stephanie Schneiderman and Valarie James.

A panel discussion about weaving traditions in India and Southeast Asia with Gunjan Jain, Uddipana Goswami and Maren Beck.

A panel discussion with Mari Gray, Anne Kelly and Alisa Woofter.

A panel discussion with Cael Chappell, Elisha Renne and Susan Davis.

Panel discussion with Hedy Hollyfield, Catherine Joslyn and Gloria Miller.