Seanna Connell (Project Director, ArtBridges), Dr. Shauna McCabe (Executive Director, Textile Museum of Canada), Ruth Mandel (Ruth Mandel- WHO GIVES Fund, Sponsor)

Recently, ArtBridges friend and supporter, Ruth Mandel, connected ArtBridges with the Textile Museum of Canada as they were launching an innovative creative program. The Textile Museum of Canada has a long history of community engagement and wanted to identify partners interested in a unique hands-on learning experience. Specifically, they wished to offer rug-hooking instruction and materials to women who haven’t had this kind of opportunity before. The community outreach would tie in with their current exhibit: Home Economics: 150 Years of Canadian Hooked Rugs – on now until February 8, 2016.

ArtBridges connected the Museum with a number of community-engaged arts initiatives that work with women in Toronto. ArtHeart, Workman Arts, Sistering and SKETCH are now all set up to receive introductory sessions in rug-hooking at the Museum, followed by four workshops on site at each of their studios beginning January. This is a wonderful example of ‘ArtBridging’ and more importantly- how more and more Museums and Galleries are engaging diverse communities beyond their walls. – Seanna, Project Director, ArtBridges.

« Featuring over 120 hooked rugs from the Museum’s rich archive of material culture, this exhibition represents generations of creative entrepreneurship, women’s innovation and community development and includes the work of artists Joanna Close, Nancy Edell, Hanna Epstein, Deanne Fitzpatrick, Heather Goodchild, Barbara Klunder and Yvonne Mullock as well as seldom-seen pieces by Emily Carr, Clarence Gagnon, Florence Ryder and Georges-Édouard Tremblay.

Home Economics is made possible through the lead support of the William R. and Shirley Beatty Charitable Foundation. The generous contribution of Ruth Mandel – WHO GIVES Fund complemented by the Private Giving Foundation, TD Wealth, supports important community-engaged rug hooking workshops facilitated by ArtBridges in partnership with local agencies. The catalogue that accompanies the exhibition is made possible through the kind support of Carole and Howard Tanenbaum. »

For more information, please visit textilemuseum.ca

-submitted by the Textile Museum of Canada