Threaded Stories | A Future by Hand
Exhibition Details
Exhibition in Conkling Gallery: 01/12/2026 – 02/06/2026
Artist Panel in Ostrander Auditorium: Thursday, 01/29/2026, 6–7 pm
Reception in Conkling Gallery: Thursday, 01/29/2026, 7–8 pm
Location: Conkling Gallery, first floor of Nelson Hall, Maywood Ave., Mankato, MN 56001
Curatorial Statement by Luciana Bongiovanni:
This exhibition explores the expansive notion of what textile art has become by showing contemporary artworks that reflect the interaction between diverse mediums and the legacy of textile techniques as a form of transgenerational and multicultural knowledge.
Textile art is one of the earliest creative expressions of human beings—emerging in diverse cultures around the world and flourishing in Latin America—yet its impact remains strong, perhaps stronger than ever. Its impact lies not in denying or combatting the digital age but rather in affirming time-honored crafted processes and finding comfort and refuge in the tactile tradition of doing things. Handmade techniques entail a strong focus on the present moment and a deep connection with the past, a duality that is soothing and restorative in a world of scattered peoples, waning traditions, and short attention spans.
These artworks carry and manifest that legacy while simultaneously capturing the zeitgeist of the modern age. They tell past and present stories about identity, history, and community through fibers and textiles woven into new mediums and innovative contexts. They summon the experience of Latin American culture by celebrating and preserving heritage while also acknowledging the people, places, and practices that were lost along the way and our present experiences and struggles.
Threaded Stories | A Future by Hand narrates the dual journey of ancestral techniques and quotidian gendered chores evolving into a dynamic contemporary art form, alongside a people embarking from their homeland to a distant place and telling our story of a past and future made by hand.
Apply to the MAEP
The Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program (MAEP) is a curatorial program of the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), dedicated to exhibiting and supporting artists living and working in the state. The program supports emerging and mid-career artists in realizing their proposed exhibition of new, ongoing, or recently finished artwork.
The MAEP selects exhibitions through a juried competition, or Open Call. The program hosts three Open Calls a year, in February, June, and October. The MAEP Advisory Committee and Mia staff review applications to select one recipient who will receive up to $13,500 to realize their proposed exhibition in the U.S. Bank Gallery.
February 1–27, 2026, for the March–June 2027 exhibition
Learn more: https://new.artsmia.org/exhibitions/maep/apply-to-the-maep
Place Keepers Book Launch
Join us in celebrating the book launch of Place-Keepers: Latina/x Art, Performance, and Organizing in the Twin Cities by Jessica Lopez Lyman. There will be an exhibition featuring the artwork, music, and poetry by Deborah Ramos, Maria Cristina Tavera, Maria Isa, Lady Midnight, Lorena Duarte, Teresa Ortiz, Lupe Castillo, Olivia Levins Holden and Magdalena Kaluza. Moon Palace will be selling books for purchase. There will also be a sliding scale dinner with all donations to benefit the Chicano and Latino Studies Ramona Arreguín de Rosales Lecture. Thank you to Academias La Paz School District for their support of this event.
December 12th at El Colegio High School from 5:30-7:30 pm
Aires de Felicidad
Join us at Indigenous Roots Cultural Art Center for Aires de Felicidad, a tropical Christmas themed installation by Cándida González rooted in maximalist diaspoRican DNA. The opening will be December 5th, 2025 from 6-10 pm with treats, coquito and sounds from DJ La Nena. The show runs until the end of January.
Indigenous Roots Cultural Art Center
Opening December 5th, 2025, 6-10 pm
Show runs through the end of January
Vaivén: 21st-Century Art of Puerto Rico and Its Diaspora
The Katherine E. Nash Gallery at the University of Minnesota, in association with Hidrante, San Juan, is proud to present Vaivén: 21st-Century Art of Puerto Rico and Its Diaspora, a multidisciplinary exhibition spanning twenty-five years of Puerto Rican artistic production from forty-three artists working in Puerto Rico and its U.S. diaspora. Derived from Spanish for “back-and-forth movement,” vaivén is most associated with the supposed ease at which Puerto Ricans migrate between the United States and Puerto Rico. Beyond the comings and goings of travel, this word names decades of physical and cultural ebb and flow that have resulted in more persons of Puerto Rican descent living across the fifty United States than in Puerto Rico itself. In turn, to be Puerto Rican is to be inextricably linked to diaspora, Black and Caribbean epistemologies, and a constant reimagining of home and belonging. This multidisciplinary exhibition is on view now through December 6 at the Katherine E. Nash Gallery. Learn more at nash.umn.edu.
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