Around the world, fabrics carry histories, memories, and cultural traditions. Our next Member Experience, The Art of Textiles: A Global Journey, invites members to explore the Museum’s global collections through textiles and mixed-media artworks made from — or inspired by — cloth.

Using materials such as bottle caps, buttons, and clothing, these works demonstrate how textiles can express cultural heritage and personal identity through abstract form, texture, and pattern.

The tour will conclude in the Community Lab in the Arts of Global Asia galleries (3rd Floor, North Wing), where members will experience Chronicles in Cloth, a unique collaborative project between the Siddi women of Karnataka, India, and curator and social practice artist Anitha Reddy. The Siddi are descendants of African migrants, and their quilting practice is intuitive and improvisational, piecing together fabric scraps to create vibrant abstract textile art.

Following the tour, participants will have the opportunity to contribute to a new quilt that the Siddi quilters will create for the Museum.

Anitha Reddy and Kalpit Gaonkar
Stitching Stories: Collaborative Siddi Quilt Making, 2026
Single channel video, 14:00