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National Museum of Women in the Arts
Art Making

Firsthand Experience: Lacemaking

Event Details

Event Date and Time

Sat, Nov 8, 2025
11 am to 3 pm ET

Tickets and Reservations

Reservations required.
General admission: $25
Students, seniors, DC residents: $22
Members: $20

Location

Susan Swartz Studio, 4th floor

A piece of intricate, white lace features floral patterns and an embroidered scene of a building with trees in the center, set against a dark gray background.
Tap into your creativity! Learn to transform fiber into fine lace. 

Event Description

About the Event

Firsthand Experience workshops bring contemporary artists together with learners ages 13 and older for hands-on programs that combine making, gallery conversations, and discovery.

Try your hand at lacemaking during this workshop for beginners with Elena Kanagy-Loux. The artist guides participants in creating a bookmark sampler featuring three foundational stitches of bobbin lacemaking: cloth stitch, whole stitch, and half stitch. All materials will be provided; no experience necessary.

About the Instructor:

Elena Kanagy-Loux is a PhD student at Bard Graduate Center whose research into global lace history and the lives of lacemakers is grounded in her own experience as a maker. After earning her BFA in textile design from the Fashion Institute of Technology, she won a grant funding a four-month trip to study lacemaking across Europe in 2015. Upon returning to New York City, she co-founded Brooklyn Lace Guild and began teaching bobbin lace classes. She then completed an MA in costume studies at New York University and worked at the Antonio Ratti Textile Center at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for five years. She has created specially commissioned lace projects for the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the 2022 exhibition Threads of Power at Bard Graduate Center. She lectures widely on lace and textile history.

Questions? Email education@nmwa.org.

Register Today

Accessibility

Accessibility Inquiries

If you are unable to register online or would like to indicate any accessibility services you require, please email education@nmwa.org. Two weeks’ notice to request accessibility services is appreciated but not required. We will make every attempt to fulfill requests.

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