History of TAA

The Textile Art Alliance (TAA), an affiliate group of the Cleveland Museum of Art, is an active organization of artists, designers, craftspeople, educators, and collectors with a common interest in the textile and fiber arts.
Formed in 1934, TAA’s purpose is to promote the fiber arts through exhibitions, educational programs and purchases to enlarge the textile collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.
To date, approximately fifty pieces have been purchased for the museum’s textile collections. These gifts have ranged from Peruvian weavings dated 200 BC to works by contemporary Artists such as Lenore Tawney, Glen Kaufman, and Jon Eric Riis.

Exhibitions

TAA has mounted an exhibition of members’ work since 1936. In 1967 the show became a juried show. By 1970 a decision was made to restrict the show to fiber art. As “Focus: Fiber” it became a significant annual event in contemporary fiber art. In 1977 TAA members coordinated and curated ‘FIBERWORKS.’ This landmark international invitation atCMA marked the first contemporary fiber art exhibition at a major American art museum. The show expanded to a regional juried show in 1997. The first Focus: Fiber catalog was published in 2004.

To learn more go to the Exhibition pages.