TEXTILE ARTS LA: In Conversation
Handwork: Defining America’s Past and Present in Fiber
at Craft in America Center
Saturday, October 17, 2026
3:00 -5:00 pm

Handwork: Defining America's Past and Present in Fiber 

This landmark year in America's nationhood provides a moment to reflect on how textiles have always had a vital role as our cultural voice. This session will present historic anchoring examples alongside contemporary achievements to examine how innovation, independence, and personal expression are driving principles throughout the centuries. The past enlivens the present and future, providing depth and meaning to contemporary fiber pursuits. Our modern lens can spotlight how fiber artists and makers have always been revolutionaries and visionaries, providing inspiration for the trajectory of fiber now. Today's fiber artists are carrying a long-burning torch and continuing the evolution of a language that captures the complex, nuanced, and contested aspects of American life. 

 Our three speakers are Emily Zaiden, Director and Curator, Craft in America Center; Lauren Cross, Gail-Oxford Associate Curator of American Decorative Arts, The Huntington; and Tanya Aguiñiga, Multimedia Artist and Activist.  

Emily will give us an overview of how fiber is represented in the book Handwork:Handcrafted Objects That Made America and therefore its role across American history.

Lauren’s presentation The Art of Textiles: Fiber Traditions in the Huntington's Collection will explore the significance behind textile works featured in Handwork from The Huntington's collection of folk art and decorative arts. From the quilts of Gee's Bend artist Mary Lee Bendolph to 19th century spinning wheels, hooked rugs, and quilts the presentation shows the breadth of fiber traditions celebrated today that are important within American material culture.

Tanya’s presentation will talk about her piece, Metabolizing the Border, which is examined in the book. More info. coming!

Craft in America Center 8415 W. 3rd St. Los Angeles, CA 90048

Emily Zaiden is director and curator of the Craft in America Center in Los Angeles where she has organized over eighty multidisciplinary contemporary art, craft, and design exhibitions for the center and partner museum venues. Zaiden oversees public programs, a K-12 education initiative, and digital projects, including the creation of the online Craft Video Dictionary. Her research focuses on craft processes, materiality, functional design, and cultural art, particularly from a historical lens. Zaiden has an M.A. from the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture. She is editor of Handwork: Handcrafted Objects that Made America, recently published in July of 2026 by Monacelli, a division of Phaidon.

Lauren Cross, PhD is the Gail-Oxford Associate Curator of American Decorative Arts, she holds a Ph.D. in multicultural women's and gender studies from Texas Woman's University and M.F.A. in visual arts from Lesley University. Her research specializes on the works of underrecognized artists,  decorative arts and material culture, and African American fiber and craft traditions.

In 2010 she directed and produced the documentary, The Skin Quilt Project, which explored the intersections of skin color politics in African American quilt traditions, and curated the adjoining traveling exhibition The Skin Quilt Project: Uplifting Our Culture, Celebrating Tradition. At the Huntington, Cross co-organized a community festival entitled, "Quilting a Community: Celebrating Gee's Bend" in connection with the exhibition Gee's Bend: Shared Legacy. Building from The Huntington's outstanding collection strengths in American folk art, Arts and Crafts, Greene and Greene, and Colonial-era material, she has gone on to grow previously underrepresented areas of the collection, including African American clay traditions and a retrospective on the mid-century modern ceramicist Doyle Lane.

Tanya Aguiñiga was born in 1978 in San Diego, California, raised in Tijuana, Mexico, and lives and works in Los Angeles. An artist, designer, and craftsperson working with traditional craft materials, she collaborates frequently with other artists and activists to create sculptures, installations, performances, and community-based art projects. Drawing upon her upbringing as a binational citizen who daily crossed the border from Tijuana to San Diego for school, Aguiñiga’s practice speaks to her divided identity, embedding and uplifting the larger, often invisible stories of the transnational community.