About

Building the Future of Fiber Art, Together

Hi, I’m Clara Nartey, founder of Textile Art Insider. 

I believe that textiles connect us through stories, relationships, and shared histories. My earliest memory of this truth came when I was just four years old. My baby sister had just been born. My grandmother had come to live with us to help care for her. I’d often walk into a room to find my grandma and my mom poring over fabric swatches, fingers gently running over the textures, their voices animated, (sometimes hushed), sharing stories of their lives.  Whatever those conversations over cloth were about, it always felt warm, and intimate and important.

Years later, after a circuitous path, I became a textile artist myself. I began to work with the same materials that once passed lovingly through my grandmother’s and mother’s hands. But as I entered the art world, I soon discovered that those of us who work in fiber and textiles were often placed lower on the ladder than those working in other mediums.

Recently, fiber art has started finding its way into respected institutions. People have began to pay attention. Thanks to the fiber artists who came before us (mostly women), who never gave up, even when they received little or no recognition for their work. They built communities, organized sewing circles and weaving workshops, curated exhibitions, wrote books and theses, and stitched through resistance until things finally began to change.

Now, we’re at a turning point. 

That’s why I created Textile Art Insider: to help shape what comes next. We’re not just celebrating the rise of textile art; we’re actively building its future. We’re asking urgent questions:

• What do textile artists, curators, and institutions need to thrive on the world stage?
• What systems, networks, and platforms are missing and how do we create them?
• How do we champion excellence in fiber art without losing the intimacy that’s always defined this medium?

At Textile Art Insider, we highlight contemporary textile artists, amplify institutional efforts, connect collectors with meaningful work, and offer thoughtful insight from scholars into a medium that has always been both deeply personal and culturally powerful. We’re charting the next frontier of fiber art – with you.

If you believe in what we’re doing, we’d love to collaborate with you (artists, curators, museums, collectors, and cultural institutions) who are ready to be part of this next chapter.

Textile Art Insider is the future of fiber art.
Come build it with us.

Clara Nartey
Textile Art Insider
Where Textile Art Professionals and Institutions Connect

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