Cultural traditions in textile are as similar as they are different – and when dealing with traumatic experiences, fabric artists and everyday crafters innovate to create expressions of resilience in fabric.

Nina Edelman, quilt artist and author of the education curriculum for Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & Fiber Arts, will present a survey of cultural textile traditions and how those cultures use fabric to recognize and recover from traumatic experiences.

A panel of local textile artists will discuss their own works that are inspired by cultural traditions in textiles and life experiences. Their textiles become a means of catharsis created from intricate techniques and delicate tools. Panelists include:

Maikue Vang draws inspiration from traditional Hmong story clothes to address issues regarding the female body and difficult or taboo subjects such as sexual trauma. She attempts to work with the concept of trauma as a non-representational and non-repetitive encounter that permeates effects of loss, conflict, and healing.

Ethel White, a self-taught African American quilter, will show examples from her “lynching quilt” in order to discuss the unfortunate and difficult race relations in the United States, past and present.