Our Mission

Textile Arts Center unites and empowers the textile community.

Our Vision

Textile Arts Center (TAC) is a NYC-based resource facility dedicated to raising awareness and understanding of textiles through creative educational programs for children and adults. At TAC, we unite and empower the textile community and advocate for the handmade by providing accessible, skills-based classes that reinvigorate engagement with traditional crafts. Techniques like weaving, sewing, and dyeing are practical, connective, and process-driven—common denominators around the world. They are part of our collective history and vital to our ongoing expressions of design, art, and culture.

We appreciate the unique values of textile arts and want to expand opportunities for new practitioners to engage with the medium. Experiential learning is the foundation of our model and enables students from all backgrounds to make meaningful contributions to a growing community of fiber artists. By engaging with groups ranging from newcomers to experts, we increase the positive social impact of textile arts and nurture innovations and leadership in the field.

Experiential learning is the foundation of our model and enables students from all backgrounds to make meaningful contributions to a growing community of fiber artists.

Manifesto

Textile Arts Center is a safe space, but not a silent space.
We can be a respite, but are not just an escape.
TAC is a place for critical thinking and dialogue.

Toni Cade Bambara once said:
"The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible."

And we are revolutionaries.
We are a place that acknowledges our history.
We are a place that imagines our future.
We are a place that uses our hands.
We are a place for female empowerment.
We are a place for empowerment of all folks to break free of gender norms.
We are a place for connections.
We are a place that educates.
We are a place that educates educators.
We are a place that volunteers our time and abilities.
We are a place that promotes self care.
We are a place where we can admit our flaws, celebrate our differences and further our ideas.
We are a community through textiles, but make no mistake we are revolutionaries.

Find your talents.
Use your talents.
Share your talents.
WE ARE THE ONES WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR.

Our History

2009
Textile Arts Center (TAC) founded in Brooklyn, New York.
2010
TAC opened the Brooklyn studio location on 505 Carroll Street, expanded on the Adult Program class offering and launched the TAC Artist In Residence program.
2011
TAC opened our Manhattan location on West 8th Street.
2012
2013
TAC celebrated turning 5 with dynamic all-ages weaving, outdoor natural dyeing and music with our community.
2014
TAC spent time with friends.
2015
TAC launched the Work In Progress residency program.
2016
2017
TAC Brooklyn studio expanded its facilitates with more space for TAC AIR studios, Artist Studio Rentals, Summer Camp and Gallery Space.
2018
TAC made some studio updates!
2019
TAC celebrated 10 years with a show displaying the work of over 50 community members.

10 Years at TAC

2019 marked Textile Arts Center’s 10th anniversary, and a time for reflection and forward visioning, both as an organization, and as individuals invested in the future of textiles. Ten years into our journey, TAC’s commitment to unite and empower the textile community remains unwavering. It has been an honor and a pleasure to serve you, and we are grateful for your support.

Since 2009 TAC has used its platform and collective power to increase visibility of fiber arts and foster connections forged through sharing our knowledge of textiles with one another. The past ten years have brought forth projects, programs, and accomplishments including Sewing Seeds, 505 textiles, TAC Magazine, Give Back Holiday Market, unique youth programming and artist residencies and facilities. Cultural partnerships include institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn Botanical Garden, Edible Schoolyard, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Art and Design, the Museum of the City of New York, and more. All thanks to our robust network of artists, academics, and educators; TAC has become a place to gather, to hold space, to learn and to teach, to make and experience art that is meaningful, thought provoking, and culturally relevant.

Our impact

  • Taught over 15,000 adult students
  • Graduated over 100 TAC AIR Alumni
  • Hosted over 30 WIP Residents
  • Mentored over 200 interns
  • Awarded $38,000 in youth scholarships
  • Introduced roughly 20,000 NYC youth to historic and contemporary textiles
  • Collaborated with countless textile ambassadors who embody and champion our philosophy of patient and non-hierarchical experiential learning