Past Exhibitions
Browse the museum's past exhibitions, inlcuding those held at The Textile Museum's original location in Washington, D.C.'s Kalorama neighborhood. Designed to both present textiles as art, and to place them in their cultural context, Textile Museum exhibitions have primarily showcased its permanent collections, but also featured works from other textile arts drawn from a variety of public and private holdings.
Timbuktu to Tibet: Rugs and Textiles of the Hajji Babas
The exhibition told the story of the people who made the textiles, the ways they lived and worked, and the functions of their weavings.
BLUE
The human perception of color is a complex sensory phenomenon filtered through the eyes, brain, language, and multiple layers of social experience.
The Finishing Touch: Accessories from the Bolivian Highlands
In 2007, The Textile Museum acquired a large group of charming accessories from the Bolivian highlands.
Private Pleasures: Collecting Contemporary Textile Art
Collecting has played a central role in the shaping of art history as a discipline.
Textiles of Klimt's Vienna
Vienna was a center of creative activity between 1897 and 1932 with the emergence of the Secession and the Wiener Werkstätte.
Architectural Textiles: Tent Bands of Central Asia
This exhibition highlighted elaborately decorated tent bands made by different Central Asian ethnic groups, including Turkmen, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, and Kazakh.
RED
RED explored the complex uses and meanings of red in textiles across time and place through twenty-one varied textiles from the Americas, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
Mantles of Merit: Chin Textiles from Mandalay to Chittagong
Mantles of Merit was the first major exhibition devoted to the sophisticated textiles from the Chin peoples, an ethnic minority group in western Myanmar, northeastern India, and eastern Bangladesh.
Harpies, Mermaids, and Tulips: Embroidery of the Greek Islands and Epirus Region
This exhibition included approximately seventy embroidered textiles created between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries for bridal trousseaux and domestic life.
Seldom Seen: Director's Choice from the Museum's Collections
Seldom Seen: Director's Choice from the Museum's Collections presented Director Daniel Walker's selection of twenty-eight textiles from The Textile Museum's permanent holdings.
Rozome Masters of Japan
This exhibition featured the work of fifteen contemporary Japanese artists and included folding screens, scrolls, panels, and kimono all created using rozome, a wax-resist dyeing technique unique to Japan.
Silk & Leather: Splendid Attire of 19th-Century Central Asia
This exhibition featured different types of garments and accessories worn by the ruling class and urban and nomadic elites of the region which today encompasses Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and part of Kazakhstan.
Gods and Empire: Huari Ceremonial Textiles
This exhibition explored what textile iconography tells us about Huari religious and ceremonial practices and the development of the empire over time.
Textiles for This World and Beyond: Treasures from Insular Southeast Asia
This exhibition explored the role that textiles in Indonesia and Malaysia play in daily society, and how textiles are used in ceremonies to maintain harmonious relationships with the deceased or the gods.
Beyond the Bag: Textiles as Containers
This exhibition celebrated the use of textiles as utilitarian containers and gave visitors an opportunity to investigate the many ways various cultures have exploited the unique properties of textile containers to suit their needs.
On View
Binding the Clouds: The Art of Central Asian Ikat
Through the museum’s exceptional ikat collection assembled by Dr. Guido Goldman, this exhibition focuses on textiles produced with the sophisticated dyeing technique known as “binding the clouds.”
Vanishing Traditions: Textiles and Treasures from Southwest China
Explore dozens of festival costumes from minority cultures in southwest China that are new to the museum’s collections.
Breaking News: Alexander Hamilton
Drawing on historical newspapers from the collection of Antonia M. Chambers, this exhibition highlights important life events and accomplishments of founding father Alexander Hamilton.
Greetings from Washington
This exhibition examines postcards relating to D.C., from their golden age at the turn of the twentieth century through the vintage glamour of mid-century graphics and beyond.
Treasures from the Albert H. Small Washingtoniana Collection
A selection of maps, letters, prints, and artifacts on display from the museum’s Albert H. Small Washingtoniana Collection includes recent acquisitions and rare treasures. Opens June 20.
Selections from The Textile Museum Collections
You can always find a rotating selection of objects from The Textile Museum collections on view in the museum's lower-level galleries, including many objects that have rarely or never before been displayed.
Textiles 101
Interactive displays allow you to enter the mind of an artist to explore fiber, structure, color, and the creative choices that influence textile design.
Expansive Visions: GW Collection Past, Present, Future
Organized by GW's Luther Brady Art Gallery and presented in the museum's lower-level galleries, this exhibition traces GW's history and evolution as a presenter of contemporary art through highlights from the university collection.
The George Washington University Museum
The Textile Museum
701 21st Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052
Phone: 202-994-5200
[email protected]
