Calls for Entry
We invite anyone working with fiber or using traditional fiber art techniques to enter our exhibitions. HGA Individual, Family and Professional Artist Members receive a discounted entry fee. Complimentary entry is available to Students enrolled in accredited educational institutions with an active HGA Student membership or proof of student status*.
After payment, you will receive an email with the link to the application.
Small Expressions 2026
Annual Exhibit of Small Scale Works
Produced by the Handweavers Guild of America, Inc. (HGA), Small Expressions is an annual juried exhibit featuring contemporary small-scale works. The exhibit showcases works created using fiber techniques in any media, not to exceed 15 inches (38 cm) in any direction, including mounting, framing, or display devices. The exhibit is available for travel.
Exhibit: Opening August 10, 2026 - November 2, 2026, to be held at Longue Vue House & Gardens in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Following the Louisiana show, the exhibit will tour the United States through July 2027.
Juror: Textile designer and weaver Ellen Hess designs woven textiles for domestic and European textile firms. She teaches weaving and CAD at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, and has taught at the Newark Museum Arts Workshop, The Visual Arts Center of NJ, the Montclair Art Museum, the Brookfield Craft Center, Peter’s Valley Craft Education Center and national/regional fiber conferences, including Convergence, MAFA, and Stitches East. Ellen offers workshops around the country.
Entry Deadline: April 6, 2026
For entry details, refer to the Small Expressions Prospectus
Book an Exhibit: We are always seeking galleries and Museums to host our Small Expressions exhibition. To request a show, please complete this form.
After payment, you will receive an email with the link to the application.
Krewe of Threads: Let the Good Times Roll, Wearable Art Exhibit
In New Orleans, music moves through the streets, color fills the air, and celebration takes shape in every detail. This exhibition brings the energy of the city to garments, footwear, headwear, and beyond. From jackets and dresses to hats and shoes, wearable art becomes a stage where fiber techniques—woven, felted, stitched, dyed, coiled, knotted, pulled, spun, and more—come alive.
Like the krewes that parade through the streets during Mardi Gras, Krewe of Threads invites artists to revel in bold expression, celebrate craft, and transform cloth into performance. Whether rooted in tradition or breaking new ground, your work has a place in this exuberant gathering of fiber, fashion, and festivity. Let your work dance with the city’s spirit!
Exhibit: Dates August 12-16, 2026, to be held at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
Juror: Karen Donde weaves wearables and home textiles for exhibit and teaches beginning-advanced weaving, in-person and online. Conference teaching includes HGA’s Convergence®, Northern California Handweavers, Mid-Atlantic Fiber Association, Midwest Weavers, Intermountain Weavers, New England Weavers Seminar, Contemporary Handweavers of Texas, and Florida Tropical Weavers. She shared a weaving/teaching studio in Asheville, NC, for five years, and now teaches privately at her home studio. Karen is Complex Weavers’ Past President, a member of Cross Country Weavers and the Southern Highland Craft Guild, and a graduate of Haywood Community College’s fiber program. With a journalism degree from the University of Missouri, she now writes for and about weavers, including articles in Handwoven, Little Looms, Complex Weavers Journal, and Heddlecraft®.
Entry Deadline: April 20, 2026
For entry details, refer to the Wearable Art Exhibit Prospectus
After payment, you will receive an email with the link to the application.
Lagniappe: The Art of Everyday Beauty, Functional Art Exhibit
In New Orleans, lagniappe means “a little something extra”—a gift that surprises, delights, and enriches daily life. This spirit of generosity and artistry inspires the exhibition, which celebrates fiber objects that are not only practical but also designed for their beauty. From handwoven table linens and stitched garments to coiled baskets and felted vessels, these works remind us that art lives not only on the walls of galleries but also in the rhythm of everyday use.
Eligible entries include any material created with fiber techniques such as interlacing, felting, stitching, dyeing, coiling, knotting, pulling, and spinning. Whether rooted in tradition or pushing contemporary boundaries, your work has the power to transform ordinary moments into experiences of artistry and grace.
Share your vision of lagniappe—art that serves, art that surprises, art that brings a little extra beauty into daily life.
Exhibit: Dates August 12-16, 2026, to be held at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
Juror: Marcia Weiss is the Interim Dean of the School of Design & Engineering and a Professor of Textile Design at Thomas Jefferson University. A specialist in woven design, she teaches advanced studio courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels. She brings to teaching decades of industry experience, including 19 years with Burlington Industries, culminating in the role of Vice President of Design. Marcia’s research centers on culturally significant artisanal textile practices in Central Asia and West Africa. She teaches workshops, gives presentations, and has had her artwork exhibited in national and international venues. Marcia holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Textile Design from Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science and a Master of Fine Arts in Fibers from the Savannah College of Art & Design.
Entry Deadline: April 20, 2026
For entry details, refer to the Functional Art Exhibit Prospectus
After payment, you will receive an email with the link to the application.
Creative Spirits of the River, Yardage Exhibit
Like the Mississippi, cloth carries memory. Each thread interlaces stories—of ancestors, of place, of the unseen currents that shape our lives. Artists are invited to enter Creative Spirits of the River, a juried exhibition of constructed and/or embellished yardage that showcases the richness of fiber art techniques.
Inspired by New Orleans—a city alive with ghosts, rhythms, and the ever-present river—this exhibition seeks work that embodies the spirit of transformation. Whether woven, felted, stitched, dyed, coiled, knotted, or spun, yardage becomes more than material: it is a vessel for remembrance, innovation, and imagination. Yardage offers artists the freedom to explore pattern, rhythm, texture, and surface in expansive and expressive ways.
Let your work flow like the river and join this collective celebration of fiber’s enduring power.
Exhibit: Dates August 12-16, 2026, to be held at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
Juror: Mary Zicafoose is an award-winning textile artist known for bold color, dramatic scale and articulate process in contemporary Ikat tapestry. She also translates her powerful ethno-contemporary textile images into fine prints. She received her BFA from St. Mary's College, Notre Dame, IN with graduate studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Nebraska. Zicafoose was a 2008 Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts resident artist, is co-director of the American Tapestry Alliance, chairman of the board of the Omaha Union For Contemporary Art, and former board member of RugMark USA and the Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery. International exhibitions include the 13th Triennial of Tapestry in Lodz, Poland, Interweaving Cultures, Museo de Textil, Oaxaca, Mexico and Peter Gray Museum, Peurto Vallarta and the collections of fifteen United States Embassies abroad. She lives, weaves and teaches from her home on the Great Plains in Omaha, NE.
Entry Deadline: April 20, 2026
For entry details, refer to the Yardage Prospectus
After payment, you will receive an email with the link to the application.
Threaded Revelry: Throw Me Something, Mixed Media Exhibit
Celebrate the vibrant intersection of mixed media and fiber techniques.
Inspired by the color, movement, and spirit of New Orleans’ Mardi Gras parades, this exhibition embraces the joy of spectacle, the layering of traditions, and the artistry of adornment. Artists are invited to explore fiber in all its forms—interlaced, felted, stitched, dyed, coiled, knotted, pulled, spun, and more—using any material.
Like the beads, masks, and costumes tossed to eager crowds, your work can dazzle with surface, structure, and surprise. Threaded Revelry is an opportunity to play boldly, mix media freely, and join a celebration of fiber as both a serious art form and a joyous expression.
Exhibit: Dates August 12-16, 2026, to be held at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
Juror: Tina Linville grew up in the Pacific Northwest and received her BFA in Sculpture from the University of Washington and her MFA in Fibers from California State University, Long Beach. Her fiber-based sculptures, installations, and collaborative projects have been featured in numerous international, national, and regional exhibitions. Linville heads the fiber concentration in the Art and Art History Department of Baylor University and lives and works in Waco, Texas.
Entry Deadline: April 20, 2026
For entry details, refer to the Mixed Media Prospectus
Awards
- Cash prizes provided by HGA include: $500 First, $250 Second, $100 Third
- Winning works will be published in future edition of Shuttle Spindle & Dyepot magazine
- Winning works will be featured on HGA's Instagram and Facebook
- All selected works will be featured in an online exhibit photo album
- Additional Honors and/or cash prizes may be sponsored by individuals or groups
Entry Fees per Piece
- $0 - Students (with HGA Student membership or proof of current enrollment)
- $18 - HGA Members
- $25 - Non-HGA Members
Extended to March 31, 2024 - Small Expressions 2024
Extended to March 31, 2024 - Sunflowers to Sunsets, Wearable Art Exhibit
Extended to March 31, 2024 - Whirlwind of Fibers, Basketry Exhibit
Extended to March 31, 2024 - Limitless Prairies, Limitless Sky, Yardage Exhibit
Extended to March 31, 2024 - Explorers of Wind, Wagons, and Wheat, Mixed Media Exhibit
*Proof of Student status must include school name, student name, and current course enrollment with credit hour details.
You may provide one of the following types of documentation as proof of status:
- Official or unofficial transcript
- Letter from advisor (signed and recently dated)
- Letter from registrar (signed and recently dated)
- Third-Party Enrollment Certificate (must include current semester dates and a minimum of half-time student stats)
(A student ID or tuition receipt does not qualify as acceptable proof of student status.)
Documentation should confirm that you meet the Student requirements:
- Enrolled in a degree program.
- Taking at least six credit hours (undergraduate degree) or three credit hours (graduate degree) per semester or comparable credits in a quarter system.