We all visit museums and galleries to see innovative work and to find inspiration. Many of these are closed right now or we don't yet feel comfortable visiting. Many museums and galleries have put together virtual tours of their collections and exhibits. Here is a sampling of some favourites:
Compiled by Theresa S:
Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), New York, NY - moma.org - free online courses.
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON - gallery.ca - live virtual tours scheduled.
Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, MB - wag.ca - WAG @home features exhibits and activities
Textile Museum of Canada, Toronto, ON - textilemuseum.ca - whole collection is online - can search by type of fibre.
American Folk-Art Museum - folkartmuseum.org - collections online, over 500 textiles.
Victoria and Albert Museum - London, England - vam.ac.uk - online access to collections, including an extensive collection of textiles, with articles.
Visions Art Museum, San Diego, CA - visionsartmuseum.org - exhibits online, links to textile artists’ websites, articles, videos and projects galore.
There are organizations and companies that offer more in-depth classes and workshops for quilters and fibre artists, many of them free or low cost. Whether you want to learn a new technique or brush up on some technical skills, you will find something online.
Quilt Stories with Lisa Walton - conversations with artists about individual quilts. Check it out on youtube.com.
Craftsy/Bluprint/Craftsy -it was Crafty, then it was Bluprint, and now it is returning to Craftsy. It is still a work in progress so…stay tuned….
Textile Talks - a collaboration between six fibre-focused organizations - Studio Art Quilt Association (SAQA), Surface Design Association (SDA), Modern Quilt Guild (MQG), San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, Quilt Alliance, and the International Quilt Museum. Textile Talks hosts regular online lectures and presentations with notable fibre artists and reps of organizations, as well as a weekly email list of events and exhibits going on internationally. To subscribe, go to http://saqa.com. You don’t need to be a member of any of the six organizations to be on the list.
Fibre Fridays - list of news, events and exhibits posted by SAQA into your email box every Friday. To subscribe, go to http://saqa.com. You don’t need to be a member of SAQA to join this list.
Cloth Roads - a global textile marketplace. Go to http://clothroads.com to see world-wide monthly calendar of events, interesting articles and travel opportunities (in the future) as well as shopping. You can subscribe to their email newsletter.
Citizens of Craft -citizensofcraft.ca. An online calendar of events, exhibits and workshops across Canada, list of crafters, Podcast artists, curators, educators and collectors.
Quilting Arts podcast - subscribe at quiltingdaily.com or on a podcast app such as Spotify.
Textile Artist - textileartist.org - weekly emails with interviews with artists and . Access to the website is free but they have a new paid subscription option for access to tutorials by professional fibre artists. Mostly embroidery….
Prism Textiles - prismtextiles.co.uk is an international exhibiting group of textile artists. Member gallery, exhibit gallery. Loads of inspiration for all fibre artists.
Selvedge Virtual World’s Fair - Sept 3-5, 2020. This first ever event, organized by Selvedge magazine, featured exhibits, lectures, workshops, and shopping. To see what it’s all about, go to selvedge.org
Other general online sources of information and inspiration:
Pinterest - pinterest.com - browse categories, or check out the boards of artists you like
Facebook - facebook.com - moderated quilting and art groups where you can post your work and see the work of others. Our very own TFAM has a public page and a private group for members.
Instagram - instagram.com - follow TFAM, find individual artists and groups whose work you are interested in.
Guilds and arts organizations charge a membership fee, but many of them offer online resources that can be very useful at this time. Check out the:
And lastly, as a retired librarian, here’s my plug for your local library - the Winnipeg Public Library winnipegmb.rbdigital.com offers free access to online magazines, many of them geared toward crafting and hobbies. Check out the newest issue of Quilting Arts or American Craft.
Do you have a favourite site or source that you use regularly? Let us know…..
Helen Godden offers a free quilt along with 9 blocks of free flower patterns on her Facebook page. Visit Helen on YouTube and Facebook for details https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoySNG5MSd4