Since its inception in the late 1970s, The Fabric Workshop and Museum set out to be a space for artists to collaborate with in-house artists and experiment with new materials and methodologies. FWM Artists-in-Residence are encouraged to push beyond their comfort zones and treat their time with the Studio as a creative laboratory of limitless possibilities. To date, FWM has worked with over 385 artists on projects that range from screen-printing to performance, from weaving to installation. Oftentimes, these artists leave FWM having created artwork using an entirely different method, forever impacting their approach to art.
Still, the name of The Fabric Workshop and Museum remains misleading to some. To better understand its origins, the staff at FWM have organized three exhibitions with each centered around a singular element in our name. Drawing from FWM’s extensive collection, these exhibitions welcome visitors to discover the many facets of fabric, workshop, and museum.
Fabric As… opened in the fall of 2020, moving beyond material to present a metaphorical framework: fabric as print, change, activism, protection, riddle, and speech. Opening one year later, Workshop As… celebrates the collective making that occurs behind the scenes in the FWM Studio. Themes such as collaboration and experimentation are explored with completed works from the FWM Collection by Moe Brooker (Philadelphia, PA), Anish Kapoor (London, UK), Robert Kushner (New York, NY), and Jiha Moon (Atlanta, GA). Complemented by archival footage and process material, these artworks touch upon key elements underscoring the idea of Workshop: a sense of collaboration, a willingness to try anything, and a desire to push the envelope. Ultimately, these explorations—and by extension, The Fabric Workshop and Museum—have charted new courses in contemporary art.
Artist Box Inventories