Past Exhibitions
Browse the museum's past exhibitions, inlcuding those held at The Textile Museum's original location in Washington, D.C.'s Kalorama neighborhood. Designed to both present textiles as art, and to place them in their cultural context, Textile Museum exhibitions have primarily showcased its permanent collections, but also featured works from other textile arts drawn from a variety of public and private holdings.
Inspiring Beauty: 50 Years of Ebony Fashion Fair
Stunning ensembles by leading designers told the story of the Ebony Fashion Fair and its creator Eunice W. Johnson, who broke the color barrier to bring global fashion to African-American audiences.
Bingata! Only in Okinawa
This special showing of textile treasures from Okinawan museum collections featured brightly colored bingata—traditional resist-dyed fabrics—and contemporary works by Okinawan artists and fashion designers.
Your Next President . . . ! The Campaign Art of Mark and Rosalind Shenkman
Patriotic textiles from the Collection of Mark and Rosalind Shenkman illustrated how presidential campaigning developed in the 19th century.
Stories of Migration: Contemporary Artists Interpret Diaspora
Artists from around the world submitted works giving visual voice to the timely topic of diaspora.
Old Patterns, New Order: Socialist Realism in Central Asia
Organized in partnership with GW's Central Asia program, this exhibition examined the socialist realist artistic movement through paintings and textiles.
China: Through the Lens of John Thomson
This exhibition brought nineteenth-century China to life with images by Scottish photographer John Thomson, and colorful textiles and accessories from The Textile Museum's collections.
Seat of Empire: Planning Washington, 1790–1801
Drawn from the Washingtoniana collection, this exhibition presented historic maps and related images that chronicled the early urban design experiment that shaped Washington, D.C.
The Civil War and the Making of Modern Washington
This exhibition examined Washington, D.C.'s transformations from the beginning of the Civil War to Reconstruction through maps, prints, and illustrations.
Unraveling Identity: Our Textiles, Our Stories
"Unraveling Identity" united textiles from across cultures to explore expressions of individual, cultural, political, and social identity throughout the ages.
Out of Southeast Asia: Art That Sustains
The last exhibition at The Textile Museum's historic location explored Southeast Asia's rich traditions and their interpretation within contemporary art and design.
The Sultan's Garden: The Blossoming of Ottoman Art
This exhibition chronicled how stylized flowers came to embellish nearly all media produced by the Ottoman court beginning in the mid-sixteenth century.
Sourcing the Museum
Eleven contemporary artists explored the The Textile Museum’s historically and culturally varied collections and chose pieces to inspire new artworks.
Woven Treasures of Japan's Tawaraya Workshop
This exhibition featured some of the sumptuous pieces created in one of Nishijin’s oldest and most illustrious workshops: Tawaraya.
Dragons, Nagas, and Creatures of the Deep
Drawn entirely from the museum’s collections, the textiles in this exhibition illuminated imaginative images of mythical creatures as diverse as the peoples who created them.
Weaving Abstraction: Kuba Textiles and the Woven Art of Central Africa
This was the first major museum exhibition in the U.S. to showcase the artistic inventiveness and graphic power of Kuba ceremonial dance skirts.
On View
Scraps: Fashion, Textiles, and Creative Reuse
"Scraps" presents the work of three designers who have pioneered creative approaches to recycling textiles: Luisa Cevese in Milan; Christina Kim in Los Angeles; and Reiko Sudo in Tokyo. Opens September 2.
Selections from The Textile Museum Collections
You can always find a rotating selection of objects from The Textile Museum collections on view in the museum's lower-level galleries, including many objects that have rarely or never before been displayed.
Foundations for a Nation: Architectural Images from the Albert H. Small Washingtoniana Collection
Historical images reveal how public competitions, presidential preferences, and unanticipated historical events shaped the U.S. Capitol and White House.
A Collector’s Vision: Selections from the Albert H. Small Washingtoniana Collection
A new selection of maps, letters, prints, and artifacts on display from the museum’s Albert H. Small Washingtoniana Collection includes recent acquisitions and rare treasures.
Expansive Visions: GW Collection Past, Present, Future
Organized by GW's Luther Brady Art Gallery and presented in the museum's lower-level galleries, this exhibition traces GW's history and evolution as a presenter of contemporary art through highlights from the university collection.
The George Washington University Museum
The Textile Museum
701 21st Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052
Phone: 202-994-5200
museuminfo@gwu.edu
