Textile Art Insider

I’m excited to tell you about a project I’ve been working on called – Textile Art Insider.

The art world can be a maze for the uninitiated. Even for those who have had the chance to be exposed to it somewhat, it takes years to navigate this space. Many artists, art lovers, and collectors will describe this space as elitist. Eventually, after struggling for years to understand the machinations of the art world, many just give up.

A Textile Art History

This is true for any medium in the arts. However, it’s more so for the textile arts, where I’ve dedicated all of my professional art career. For many centuries, the textile arts have been considered an inferior art form to the other art mediums like painting and sculpture. It’s association to so-called “women’s work” has been viewed by many as lacking intellectual rigor. In other words, something women do only for fun. Thus, making the textile arts world even harder to navigate for those in this space.

I’ve been learning to find my footing in the art world for almost 10 years now. And it’s been a ride. It’s absolutely not an easy place to navigate. A lot of things are shrouded in secrecy and exclusivity. As much as I’ve had my fair share of challenges finding my path in this space, I’ve also been blessed with some good opportunities. And I know how a good opportunity can impact your art career. So, I want to create some opportunities for artists to blossom.

Being an artist myself, I know how it feels to be on either side of this divide of having opportunity and not having some. I also know that there are many talented artists who are looking for opportunity to show what they’re capable of doing. In the same vein, there are many art lovers who want to appreciate and own some of these artworks; but don’t have access to them. And then there are art professionals – dealers, curators, critics- who have access to opportunities and are willing to give some new artists a shot.

Navigating the Textile Art World

However, there’s no clear way to connect all the various parties in this textile art ecosystem. Elevating textile artists and the incredible work that they make has been a passion of mine for several years. To accomplish this goal, I started using my blog as a platform to get other textile artists noticed. I interviewed and published right here on my blog about the practices of many textile artists (read them here). I’ve also visited textile art exhibitions and published reviews about them. I’ve done all of this to promote the work textile artists do, and give people opportunities to connect with their works.

Supporting the work textile artists do and elevating that work is where my heart has always been. In the furtherance of this goal, in the summer of 2018, I started an Instagram page to do just that. At the time, I was still learning how to work Instagram. Managing that page and my own artist page became overwhelming so, reluctantly, I let the Instagram page for textile artists go for a long time without me posting to it.

Introducing Textile Art Insider

Fast forward 2023, just before the first month of the year (January) will end, I decided to reboot that Instagram page. I’ve started promoting the work and exhibitions of textile artist on Instagram again. The page was formally called Textile Art Exhibition. I changed it to Textile Art Insider, this year. I want to do more with this page. I’ll like to go back to doing artist interviews again. My goal with this page is to give textile artists a platform to show off their works (especially exhibitions) and give them a way to connect with the other participants in this ecosystem. My main focus will be on working artists who can demonstrate a commitment to the practice as professionals.

Please join me in promoting and connecting the textile art world on Textile Art Insider. For now, any new programing ideas or announcements will be made on this Instagram page. Follow our page, tag your friends to follow, and help share our posts and our mission. I thank you in advance for your support.

Warmly,

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Also published on Medium.