Join us for Identity Is… Expansive with artist Michael Sylvan Robinson and Elissa Auther, MAD’s Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs and William and Milford Lasdon Chief Curator. For his appearance at the MET Museum’s Gala in 2021, award-winning theater producer and fashion icon Jordan Roth commissioned the textile artist and queer activist Michael Sylvan Robinson to design a garment that represented Roth’s embrace of identity as an expansive concept. Starting in April the Identity Is… garment gets a special installation in the lobby of the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD). We’ll hear from Robinson about the process of creating the elaborately embellished garment and how the coat also relates to their queer activism in which garments function as performance tools in public contexts. Robinson has described the coat and its pairing of words, images, and ornamentation: “it’s queer activism meets decorative arts meets fashion meets street art meets art history.”
Textile Talks features weekly presentations and panel discussions from the International Quilt Museum, Quilt Alliance, Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA), and Surface Design Association. The programs are held online at 2 p.m. Eastern (11 a.m. Pacific) each Wednesday.
Interested in supporting Textile Talks?
Please donate to help defray costs for the participating organizations.
