Social Meetup: Connecting with SDA Board, Staff, and Members Worldwide

Drop in for this casual meetup to connect with others in the SDA community. Each session will offer an opportunity to share your practice, meet with others, and hear about upcoming programming and opportuntities at SDA and beyond.

Dates: Thursdays, September 11, September 25, October 9, and October 23, all dates at 12 pm Eastern time (convert timezone)

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Curating Connections with Shannon Lee Molter and Helen Adams

Learn from two curators sharing traditional, digital, and experimental perspectives. We will address essential questions about curation and exhibition processes including artwork selection, and dynamic practices to create relationships between artists, artworks within an exhibition and an engaged audience within a gallery space. Participants will practice creating connections with other participants and receive guidance with foundational documents necessary in the submission process.

Discussion prompt example: What are some ways you have found to exhibit your work?

Dates: Saturday, October 4, November 1, and December 6 at 10:30 am Eastern time (convert timezone)

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Louise Bourgeois: Fiber and Materiality with Bethany Cordero & Suzanne Morlock

This meetup invites artists and thinkers alike to engage with Louise Bourgeois’s legacy while experimenting with their own creative responses in fiber. We’ll examine how she used humble, domestic materials to create powerful sculptural expressions of memory, identity, and the body. Through guided discussions and hands-on material explorations, participants will also consider broader questions within fiber arts.

Discussion prompt example: How did Bourgeois use fiber to evoke psychological or bodily states?

Dates: Thursdays, November 6 and November 13 from 11 am – 12:30 pm Eastern time (convert timezone)

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Book Discussion: The Empire of Cotton – A Global History by Sven Beckert with Susan Clark and Adrianna Hinds

“A fascinating and profound examination of the history of a crop that played a transformative role in the making of the modern world,” Eric Foner. During the autumn 2025 Meetup, the group will discuss chapters 1 to 5. The discussion will continue in 2026. Please read the introduction before the first meeting.

Discussion prompt example: What role does cotton play in your life and in your art practice?

Dates: Wednesdays, September 24, October 1, and October 8 at 7 pm Eastern time (convert timezone)

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Creative Inspiration with Holly Smith & Elizabeth Okeyele

Join us for a joyous buffet of ideas and discussions around creativity and artistic inspiration;
thoughts on expanding our textile practice through experimentation and collaboration; gentle encouragement to help navigate a creative dry spell; and opportunities to celebrate — and learn from — the uninhibited creative abandon of children.

Discussion prompt examples: Consider Romare Bearden’s quote and discuss how it relates to your own experience: “I think the artist has to be something like a whale, swimming with his mouth wide open, absorbing everything until he has what he really needs. When he finds that, he can start to make limitations. And then he really begins to grow.”

Dates: Mondays, October 6, October 27, and November 17  at 10 am Eastern time (convert timezone)

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Deconstruction: A Home Artist Residency with Ana Tieche and Christy Strickler

In this home artists’ residency, we will investigate the act of breaking apart form and symbolism to create new perspectives in our work – rearranging, combining, reordering elements and working with them in various media. We’ll also discuss how you can create a personal framework for your artist residency at home while exploring the concept of deconstruction in art.

Discussion prompt examples: How might you break down an image(its shapes, lines, or meaning) and reconstruct it into a new work? What do you choose to keep, transform, or let go of?

Dates: Mondays, September 22, October 20, and November 17 at 2 pm Eastern time (convert timezone)

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Atypical Textiles: Interdisciplinary & Community Oriented Approaches to Textiles with Jessie McClanahan

We will look at the various ways textiles, or process in textiles, can be used as a framework for interdisciplinary art. Textiles have long been a craft art that relies on being in community with others; can we stretch this to fit more modern contexts? When we look to the history of textiles and the relationships we have fostered with other plants, animals, and communities can we expand or reimagine these relationships?

Discussion prompt example: How does the integration of these reimagined community members in your practice change the context of your work?

Dates: Sundays, October 5 and October 26 from 6:30 – 8 pm Eastern time (convert timezone)

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Repurpose to Create with Felicia L. Reed

We will discuss the various concepts and techniques that are available to us as creators by repurposing. The session includes interactive discussion with participants sharing resources and creations. Additionally, we will discuss how we can support each other in the work we are doing.

Discussion prompt example: How do you use repurposed materials and where do you find them?

Dates: Tuesdays, September 23, October 7, and October 21 at 7 pm Eastern time (convert timezone)

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Natural Dye Resource Group with Astrid Hilger Bennett and Prachi Mehrota

Whether you’re a novice or a seasoned practitioner, this group is designed for sharing experiences and information about using, growing and problem solving natural dyes. The format includes presentations and discussions. We maintain a resource file and are continuing monthly meetings following a successful launch of this group in 2024.

Dates: Saturdays, September 20, October 18, and November 15 at 12 pm Eastern time (convert timezone)

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