Join us Labor Day weekend at the MoJo for this hands on workshop!

See how textile artist Tabitha Arnold uses a punch needle as an embroidery tool as you create your own small embroidery. You can keep your finished piece or contribute it to a collective tapestry that will grow over time in multiple cities across the US.

These workshops are offered in partnership with the WALS Foundation's Reuther-Pollack Labor Symposium, where Arnold is a featured presenter this year. More information about the symposium can be found at facebook.com/WALSFoundation

About the artist:

Born and deeply rooted in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Arnold tried to study painting in Philadelphia, until an Ann Hamilton exhibit freed her to abandon the medium and teach herself tapestry weaving. In 2019, she began organizing a union at her workplace: a profound experience that called for making tapestries about labor. Using a rug-punching tool as a makeshift embroidery needle, Arnold borrows images from Bible Belt spirituality, social realism, and pre-modern art to create monuments for the working class. Her practice comes out of a generational revival of union organizing in the United States, and the tapestries tie this moment into a long lineage of historical class struggle, especially in the Appalachian South.

Arnold is the winner of the 2025 Southern Prize for Visual Art. She exhibits her tapestries at union halls and labor conventions, along with traditional venues like Field Projects (Chelsea, NY) The Worker's Art and Heritage Center (Hamilton, ON) and Institute 193 (Lexington, KY.) You can read about her work in the New York Times, Interview Magazine, Jacobin, and The Guardian, and see it on covers for Dissent Magazine since 2021. Her pieces are in museum collections and on the walls of union-loving homes, but her biggest flex is a solidarity tapestry at the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) in Havana.

Join us Labor Day weekend at the MoJo for this hands on workshop!

See how textile artist Tabitha Arnold uses a punch needle as an embroidery tool as you create your own small embroidery. You can keep your finished piece or contribute it to a collective tapestry that will grow over time in multiple cities across the US.

These workshops are offered in partnership with the WALS Foundation's Reuther-Pollack Labor Symposium, where Arnold is a featured presenter this year. More information about the symposium can be found at facebook.com/WALSFoundation

About the artist:

Born and deeply rooted in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Arnold tried to study painting in Philadelphia, until an Ann Hamilton exhibit freed her to abandon the medium and teach herself tapestry weaving. In 2019, she began organizing a union at her workplace: a profound experience that called for making tapestries about labor. Using a rug-punching tool as a makeshift embroidery needle, Arnold borrows images from Bible Belt spirituality, social realism, and pre-modern art to create monuments for the working class. Her practice comes out of a generational revival of union organizing in the United States, and the tapestries tie this moment into a long lineage of historical class struggle, especially in the Appalachian South.

Arnold is the winner of the 2025 Southern Prize for Visual Art. She exhibits her tapestries at union halls and labor conventions, along with traditional venues like Field Projects (Chelsea, NY) The Worker's Art and Heritage Center (Hamilton, ON) and Institute 193 (Lexington, KY.) You can read about her work in the New York Times, Interview Magazine, Jacobin, and The Guardian, and see it on covers for Dissent Magazine since 2021. Her pieces are in museum collections and on the walls of union-loving homes, but her biggest flex is a solidarity tapestry at the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) in Havana.

Join us as The Mother Jones Center for Resilient Community showcases the mosaic works of artists from the recent “Piece, Peace, Plant” workshop series. Encased in tile and glass, participants' work explores how landfill-bound materials can be used to create biophilic shapes reminiscent of cacti and succulents.

In a world overrun with AI, Biophilic designs seeks to reconnect people to nature through shape, texture and experiences that enhance human wellbeing. Through mosaic materials, technique, design, and hours of mosaicking, these creations have pieced together sculptural works and friendships that have planted creativity and connection into our community.

YA’LL

Tuesdays, 5:00PM - 7:00PM

Join us as The Mother Jones Center for Resilient Community showcases the mosaic works of artists from the recent “Piece, Peace, Plant” workshop series. Encased in tile and glass, participants' work explores how landfill-bound materials can be used to create biophilic shapes reminiscent of cacti and succulents.

In a world overrun with AI, Biophilic designs seeks to reconnect people to nature through shape, texture and experiences that enhance human wellbeing. Through mosaic materials, technique, design, and hours of mosaicking, these creations have pieced together sculptural works and friendships that have planted creativity and connection into our community.

In this beginner-friendly needle felting workshop, you will learn everything you need to start and keep needle felting with wonderful wool!

In this beginner-friendly needle felting workshop, you will learn everything you need to know to start and keep needle felting with wonderful wool! You will make an adorable 3D frog sculpture to take home and love, as you learn about the materials, tools, and techniques you can apply to your next creations. Instructor Margaret Cruse will show you just how easy it is to become a needle felter, and you can experience why needle felting has become so many people’s favorite way to relax and be creative!

Workshop Cost: $25 (Proceeds benefit The MoJo. See scholarship/sliding scale info below.)

Ages: Adults and children 12+