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Class Description:

In this 6-week class, students will be introduced to weaving beyond the loom through techniques including book, card, and tapestry weaving. Students will learn how to construct simple, portable, “looms” using easy-to-find materials that can be adapted to any circumstance. Through each technique, students will learn about the basic elements of woven cloth and explore the design variations and possibilities offered by each weaving approach. The course will engage with the many examples of woven works from the museum’s Indigenous Arts of North America and Textile and Fashion Collections – many of which were created using similar techniques to those we will be using in class – as well as the work of contemporary weaving artists such as Sheila Hicks, Karolina Gnatowski, and Colorado-based artist Steven Frost.

What to Expect:

This class will include a mix of in-class demonstration, skill sharing, and making as well as group gallery visits and discussion. The compact and mobile formats of the looms will allow us to take our work beyond the classroom to draw inspiration from the galleries and the museum’s architecture while connecting with themes of space, place, and portability. Through observing works in the collection and learning new skills, we will take time to reflect on how weaving techniques are engaged across cultures and textile traditions, our positions as learners and artists, and our own relationships with textile histories. Students will leave the class with three sample weavings along with their handmade loom components.

Timeline:

Week 1 – Introductions + Book Weaving

• Introductions and class overview

• Lecture/demonstration: Intro to weaving

• Demonstration/activity: Tapestry weaving on a book loom

• Demonstration/Activity: Basic weave structures

• For next time: bring backstrap materials

Week 2 – Backstrap Weaving

• Re-introductions, questions/reflections from last class

• Demonstration/activity: Cutting off and finishing book weavings (15 mins)

• Slide lecture: Contemporary weaving artists + Backstrap Weaving

• Demonstration/Activity: Setting up the backstrap loom

• For next time: optional reading

Week 3 – Backstrap Weaving + Gallery Visit

• Gallery visits to woven textile objects

• Demonstration/activity: Weaving on a backstrap loom in museum space

• For next week: Bring materials for card weaving

Week 4 – Card Weaving

• Lecture/demonstration: Tablet weaving

• Prepare cards and card looms

• For next week: Optional reading

Week 5 – Card Weaving + Gallery Visit

• Welcome and gather

• Group reading discussion

• Demonstration/activity: Card weaving

• Gallery visit

Week 6 – Card Weaving + Conclusion

• Card weaving in museum space

• Return to classroom, finishing card weavings

• Share work and wrap up

Class Make-up Day Policy:

If a class or workshop needs to be cancelled due to inclement weather or teacher illness, a “make-up” day will be scheduled on a FRIDAY or SATURDAY as the educator’s schedule allows.

Materials:

Students will purchase their own materials and should expect to spend $50-70.

We partner with Meininger’s for local shopping, purchase a kit of your required materials online for in-store pickup, or purchase the items individually.

Educator:

Etta Sandry is an artist, educator, and facilitator currently based in Boulder, Colorado. Rooted in weaving, her interdisciplinary work is situated in the expanded material practices field between craft, contemporary art, and creative research. She has exhibited her work in the United States and Canada and was the 2022 Experimental Weaver in Residence at the Unstable Design Lab at the University of Colorado, Boulder where she now conducts research as a PhD student. Etta completed her MFA in the Fibre & Material Practices program at Concordia University where she also held positions teaching fiber structures and critical thinking & writing. She has over ten years of experience working as an organizer and administrator in arts communities, including roles as a board member at the artist-run centre articule in Montreal and as a volunteer staff in ACRE Residency’s fiber studio in Wisconsin.

www.ettasandry.com

Create & Play is an early-childhood program at the Denver Art Museum for families with children ages 0-5 (though siblings are always welcome too!). Create & Play offers a range of experiences within the museum, including time close looking at art in the galleries, artmaking, and a participatory performance.

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The basic benefits, including unlimited free general admission for an entire year for two named card-holders and four guests per visit, up to six total adult tickets per visit, including the cardholder(s) plus:

• Expanded reciprocal admission benefits at more than 500 museums nationwide via the Art Museum Reciprocal Network (AMRN), the Reciprocal Organization of Associated Museums (ROAM), the Western Reciprocal Program, and Museum's West
• Two free admissions for every ticketed exhibition
•  6 complimentary one-time use general admission guest passes
• Advance purchase for ticketed exhibitions
• 30% off coupon for one item in the Shop

Join us for our annual Día del Niño (Children's Day) festivities, a global celebration of children, with a wide variety of live music, dance performances, art making, and free general admission for everyone.

April 27 is a Free Day at the DAM. Advanced reservation is recommended, but not required.

Give to the Denver Art Museum's Annual Fund

Your 100% tax-deductible contribution supports inspiring art connections, powerful artist collaborations, community-minded programming at the Denver Art Museum. During these unprecedented times, your donation helps the museum reimagine how we connect in person and online through a series of new opportunities for visitors of all ages. Thank you for your support of the Denver Art Museum's annual fund.

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In 2016, Ahmadi received the Anonymous Was A Woman Award and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. Her work is in the collections of the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; Dallas Museum of Art; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia.

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(Re)discover how art opens minds, conversations, and possibilities. Learn more at denverartmuseum.org.

Advance ticket reservations are strongly encouraged.

The Ponti restaurant will also be open. Reservations available at thepontidenver.com

In partnership with CPR Classical, this event brings to life the radio feature Behind the Baton with Scott O’Neil, the former Colorado Symphony resident conductor. O’Neil will explore the music of Mozart and its influence on Sendak’s creative process, performing selections on the piano while uncovering the mysteries behind Mozart’s masterpieces.

Denver Art Museum Director and Wild Things curator Christoph Heinrich will delve into the deep connections between music and art, sharing vivid imagery from Sendak’s beloved works, including Where the Wild Things Are, A Hole is to Dig, and Little Bear. Together, O’Neil and Heinrich will illuminate the dynamic interplay of music and visual storytelling that defined Sendak’s groundbreaking career.

Art as Agency: Creating Beauty at Amache and Beyond

During World War II, over 120,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly relocated from their homes on the West Coast and into American concentration camps, where they lived in uncomfortable barracks while battered by extreme climates without knowing when their unjust incarceration would end. For many, the arts became avenues to beauty, comfort, and survival in the face of prejudice. Inspired by the exhibition "The Life and Art of Tokio Ueyama", the Petrie Institute’s 19th annual symposium explores how painting, gardening, screen printing, and other art forms helped reassert humanity, creativity, and resilience at camps including the Granada Relocation Center in Southeast Colorado, now the Amache National Historic Site.

Museum Friends are invited to an exclusive tour of Confluence of Nature: Nancy Hemenway Barton, featuring her large-scale textile wall reliefs crafted with hand-loomed fabrics from indigenous communities in South America and Africa. This tour, led by Barton's sons—Rick, Brad, and Bill—along with Jill D'Alessandro, the Director and Curator of the Avenir Institute of Textile Arts and Fashion, provides a unique opportunity to glimpse into Barton’s creative process and the cultural inspirations that influenced her work. Join us to explore her impactful artistic legacy up close.

The museum’s Sensory-Friendly Mornings is a program for kids with neurodiversity or sensory processing disorders and their families to visit the museum in a safe and fun way. The museum will open early, dim the lights, and provide tools to aid and guide a sensory-friendly experience for the whole family.

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In partnership with CPR Classical, this event brings to life the radio feature Behind the Baton with Scott O’Neil, the former Colorado Symphony resident conductor. O’Neil will explore the music of Mozart and its influence on Sendak’s creative process, performing selections on the piano while uncovering the mysteries behind Mozart’s masterpieces. Denver Art Museum Director and Wild Things curator Christoph Heinrich will delve into the deep connections between music and art, sharing vivid imagery from Sendak’s beloved works, including Where the Wild Things Are, A Hole is to Dig, and Little Bear. Together, O’Neil and Heinrich will illuminate the dynamic interplay of music and visual storytelling that defined Sendak’s groundbreaking career.

Art as Agency: Creating Beauty at Amache and Beyond

During World War II, over 120,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly relocated from their homes on the West Coast and into American concentration camps, where they lived in uncomfortable barracks while battered by extreme climates without knowing when their unjust incarceration would end. For many, the arts became avenues to beauty, comfort, and survival in the face of prejudice. Inspired by the exhibition "The Life and Art of Tokio Ueyama", the Petrie Institute’s 19th annual symposium explores how painting, gardening, screen printing, and other art forms helped reassert humanity, creativity, and resilience at camps including the Granada Relocation Center in Southeast Colorado, now the Amache National Historic Site.

Donations to this fund are invested by the DAM foundation with the intention to grow the fund in value over time. This fund provides an annual distribution based on the Foundation's policy.  Distributed funds are used to acquire new artwork for the DAM.

The Museum regularly reconciles expenditures made from distributed funds to ensure that they are allocated as intended.