Fiber art, reimagined
This fall, the Pacific Northwest Quilt & Fiber Arts Museum invites the community to step closer, literally and figuratively, into a new kind of fiber art experience.
“Handheld Dreams,” running through Dec. 7 in the museum’s third-floor gallery, features brand-new work created specifically for the museum by Indiana-based multidisciplinary artist Julian Jamaal Jones. Every piece in the exhibition is being shown for the first time, and they will all be available for purchase.
For the museum, the show is about more than filling a gallery. It is part of a larger effort to widen the door, said Morgan Kavanagh, curator of education and community outreach, who joined the museum last December. “We used to be a really traditional quilt museum, and we have expanded outside of that. One of our goals is to present all different kinds of fiber art,” she said.
That mission feels right at home in La Conner, a town where art and daily life overlap. The museum sees itself as part of that ecosystem. It’s a place where heritage and experimentation sit side by side.
Jones’ work fits right into that vision. His grandmother was a quilter, and he is clearly in connection with that tradition, but his pieces are entirely his own. The series, inspired in part by photographer Tyler Mitchell’s “I Can Make You Feel Good,” imagines Black life as leisure and repose, where rest becomes a radical act. The quilts are small, abstract, and full of vibrant color feeling almost like jazz riffs stitched into fabric. “He made the works quite small. You have to get close to them. They are very intimate,” Kavanagh said. “It feels very generous to make a show about dreams, play, relaxation, and leisure from the perspective of a Black artist, and then invite people to be in that space with all the dreams he made.”
The result is an experience that feels personal and a little dreamlike. It is the kind of show that makes you want to linger a little longer in the gallery.Visitors will have a rare chance to hear directly from the Jones from 2-3 p.m. Oct. 11 He will give an intimate talk sharing his process and the inspirations behind “Handheld Dreams.”
Seating is limited to about 20 guests (tickets $10-$20, discounts available for students, teachers, and members). Afterward, the museum will host a free public reception from 3-5 p.m. with refreshments and open galleries.
