Partners in Art is proud to support Taking Shape: Recent Acquisitions highlights the new additions to the Textile Museum of Canada’s collection, reflecting our ongoing commitment to inclusivity and ethical stewardship. These acquisitions center on Indigenous textile arts, LGBTQ2S+ textile traditions, and contemporary works by emerging artists from Nigeria, Guatemala, Mexico, United States, and Canada. Through these pieces, the exhibition prioritizes the lived experiences, artistic innovations, and cultural expressions that have too often been left out of museum spaces as a whole. These recent acquisitions represent a commitment to making space for communities who have been absent from our Museum’s collection; by bringing these objects in, we are expanding what it means to steward a collection that is meant to represent the communities we serve. With each new addition, our collection will never stop taking shape over time, consistently evolving to represent the diversity and interconnectedness of our world on local, national, and international levels.  

Among the selected objects in Taking Shape are intricately constructed pieces by Indigenous artists that incorporate traditional knowledge and new materials; vibrant, printed textiles that speak to West African diasporic histories and contemporary identity; and mixed media works by queer and disabled artists that expand the definition of textile art beyond its traditional boundaries.