Like the Mississippi, cloth carries memory. Each thread interlaces stories—of ancestors, of place, of the unseen currents that shape our lives. Artists are invited to enter Creative Spirits of the River, a juried exhibition of constructed and/or embellished yardage that showcases the richness of fiber art techniques.

Inspired by New Orleans—a city alive with ghosts, rhythms, and the ever-present river—this exhibition seeks work that embodies the spirit of transformation. Whether woven, felted, stitched, dyed, coiled, knotted, or spun, yardage becomes more than material: it is a vessel for remembrance, innovation, and imagination. Yardage offers artists the freedom to explore pattern, rhythm, texture, and surface in expansive and expressive ways.

Let your work flow like the river and join this collective celebration of fiber’s enduring power.

Exhibit: Dates August 13-16, 2026, to be held at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.

Juror: Mary Zicafoose is an award-winning textile artist known for bold color, dramatic scale and articulate process in contemporary Ikat tapestry. She also translates her powerful ethno-contemporary textile images into fine prints. She received her BFA from St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame, IN with graduate studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Nebraska. Zicafoose was a 2008 Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts resident artist, is co-director of the American Tapestry Alliance, chairman of the board of the Omaha Union For Contemporary Art, and former board member of RugMark USA and the Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery. International exhibitions include the 13th Triennial of Tapestry in Lodz, Poland, Interweaving Cultures, Museo de Textil, Oaxaca, Mexico and Peter Gray Museum, Peurto Vallarta and the collections of fifteen United States Embassies abroad. She lives, weaves and teaches from her home on the Great Plains in Omaha, NE.

Entry Deadline: April 20, 2026

Caption: Window View by Geri Forkner