Brooke Erin Goldstein, From Black to Blue Skys and Everything in Between, 2018. Vintage bedsheets/fabrics, acrylic, ink, and permanent marker, 118 x 88 inches. Newport Art Museum, Museum Purchase, 2018.002.001 © Brooke Erin Goldstein.

The Newport Art Museum is pleased to announce a new exhibition, “Social Fabric: Textiles and Contemporary Issues,” which will be on view to the public from December 3, 2022, through June 11, 2023. The public is welcome and encouraged to join us in celebrating the artists at the opening reception on Friday, December 2 from 5 to 7 pm. Admission to the opening reception is free for Museum Members and a $10 suggested donation for non-members. 

This exhibition brings together a diverse array of contemporary textile artists who are weavers, sculptors, quiltmakers, and visionaries to examine the complex issues of our time. Together, their practices demonstrate and reimagine the expressive and social functions of textiles. Some of the themes include: climate change and sustainability, adaptation and reuse, war and survival, human rights and social justice, the reclamation of history, the reaffirmation and celebration of communities, and gender, ethnic, and racial identities.

The artists in this exhibition take on the challenges of a variety of materials, pushing textiles in new directions and seeing how far they can go. Through textiles, they inspire new conversations about contemporary issues.

Featured artists and organizations include: AIDS Quilt RI, Jim Arendt, Judy Chicago, and International Honor Quilt artists, Elizabeth Duffy, Brooke Erin Goldstein, Sabrina Gschwandtner, Letitia Huckaby, Tamara Kostianovsky, Jesse Krimes, Dinh Q. Lê, Aubrey Longley-Cook, Veronica Mays, the National AIDS Memorial, L. J. Roberts, Alison Saar, Marie Watt, Emma Welty, and Nafis M. White.

The Newport Art Museum is located at 76 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, RI.
Visit newportartmuseum.org or call 401-848-8200 for details.