A Common Thread is an annual exhibition of Textile Center members’ work. I visited today, and here are a few of my favorite things. Click on any of the images to see them full-sized. This is Holocaust Remembrance Day, and author and Holocaust survivor Fred Amran’s yellow star made a strong impact on me.

Niagara-on-the-Lake is a beautiful town in Ontario; it reminds me of Charleston with its lovely old houses. There’s a great main street of shops plus an apothecary museum, and forts to tour – and I saw a mink in the park on Lake Ontario’s south shore two years ago, when I was looking across to Toronto.…

This exhibition at the Peranaken Museum of embroidery and beadwork is one I’d dearly like to see. Blouin Art Info wrote a post about it, with a gallery of items included, as did the Straits Times. Peranaken Chinese are Straits-born Malay, descendants of Chinese immigrants who came to the Malay archipelago. Their beadwork is distinctive, and the…

“Strung Together: Beads, People, and History” is open now at the University of Oregon’s Museum of Natural and Cultural History in Eugene, Oregon. It encompasses thousands of years and six continents of beads, including 50 items from the museum’s permanent collection, alongside the work of contemporary bead artists including Suzanne Golden. There are also interactive…

I spent a quiet hour wandering “State of the Art” at the Minneapolis Institute of Art recently. From the website, “Featuring a diverse range of working artists from across America, “State of the Art” offers a snapshot of contemporary art that examines the ways in which people innovate with materials old and new to engage…