VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

The Houston Arts Alliance Folklife and Traditional Arts Program presents Weaving Home: Textile Traditions From Houston’s Karenni Community, in Alliance Gallery, 3201 Allen Parkway, 77019. On view May 16 – July 6, 2012.

Houston is home to refugee communities from around the world. They all bring with them distinctive traditions. The exhibition Weaving Home focuses on the weaving traditions practiced by women from one such community – a collection of Karenni families who now live in the city. Formerly from Myanmar (until recently known as Burma), the Karenni are a distinct ethnic community with origins in the country’s mountainous region bordering Thailand.

In conjunction with this exhibiton, HAA presents the following Special Exhibition Program @ Alliance Gallery:

Weaving & Micro-Enterprise:
Thursday, May 31, 5:30 – 7 pm

Members of the Contemporary Handweavers of Houston and staff from The Community Cloth will conduct an informal panel discussion exploring the economics of handmade textiles and the mechanics of micro-enterprise endeavors.

Participants will explore issues of tradition and modernity as they relate to the craft and strategies for community-based cultural preservation and economic sustainability.

SPECIAL NOTE: Volunteers from The Community Cloth will have work from all of the refugee artists they serve available for purchase at all the exhibition events. All proceeds return to the artists.

Weaving Home, an exhibition produced by the Houston Arts Alliance Folklife + Traditional Arts Program, is funded in part by the Houston Endowment, Inc., the National Endowment for the Arts, and Wells Fargo Bank.