Quilting Workshop – MFTA Third Thursday

Join us for an exciting evening of quilting. Working with unique, reused pieces of fabric, participants will be invited to create their very own quilt blocks. As one of  NYC’s premier fiber and needle arts organizations, Harlem Needle Arts presents this Third Thursday workshop as part of MFTA’s Black Future(s) Month celebration weaving together traditional African-American art forms with innovative quilting techniques. Artist Laura R. Gadson will lead the workshop and teach attendees how to blend textiles, and see everyday materials in brand new ways. Come enjoy light refreshments and find creative community at Materials for the Arts.

About Harlem Needle Arts:
Curating experiences of the African Diaspora since 2007, Harlem Needle Arts (HNA) is a cultural art institute at the forefront of revolutionizing, preserving and expanding the narrative of fiber, textile, design, and needle arts through exhibitions, education, project learning, lectures, film, technical support, economic development and tools to enhance quality of life through art. Transforming the myths of the art forms, our teaching artists are trend setters integrating the use of thread to produce content across platforms that include quilting, felting, knitting, crochet, batik, adire, botanical print, weaving, spinning, embroidery, collage, illustration, beading and fiber fusion.

About Laura R. Gadson:
Laura R, Gadson is a multimedia artist who explores and often blends the worlds of fiber including quilting, felting, painting and paper as a result of her love affair with textiles. Institutions including the New York State Museum in Albany, The Visions Museum of San Diego CA, and the Historical Society of Washington, DC have exhibited her work and her quilt designs have been displayed as banners on Harlem’s 125th Street in 2009, 2010, 2012 and currently. She is co-founder of the Harlem Aesthetic, an entrepreneurial venture that showcases artists and artisans of the African Diaspora at the Gadson Gallery, the brownstone that has been her home, studio and personal gallery since 1993.

Quilt image courtesy of Harlem Needle Arts, Semeinolefrican by Laura R. Gadson