The Fabric Workshop and Museum is one of my favorite places to take visiting friends in Philly. It's a workshop and gallery space with a small museum shop attached and it costs $3 to get in.
It's the best $3 you can spend in Philadelphia, in my opinion. The exhibits are consistently fascinating, engaging, sometimes beautiful, always eclectic, and leave you inspired. The artists often work within a rich cultural context, like the Alaskan native artist Tommy Joseph who is part of the current exhibit.
A few months ago I went with my friend Andra and one of the galleries was filled with a life-sized sperm whale made entirely out of hand-embroidered felt and inflated with a pump, by the artist Tristin Lowe. Amazing.
What makes it even better is that there are four galleries to explore and apparently they don't have security cameras because you have to be chaperoned by a museum staff member when you enter. So you basically get a personal tour guide the whole time you are in the museum and the people who have taken me around have been incredibly nice and knowledgeable. They are usually artists themselves and some of them have studio space in the workshop.
It's small and relatively unknown, but the price and quality of experience you get at FWM makes it one of the best deals in Philly.
It's the best $3 you can spend in Philadelphia, in my opinion. The exhibits are consistently fascinating, engaging, sometimes beautiful, always eclectic, and leave you inspired. The artists often work within a rich cultural context, like the Alaskan native artist Tommy Joseph who is part of the current exhibit.
A few months ago I went with my friend Andra and one of the galleries was filled with a life-sized sperm whale made entirely out of hand-embroidered felt and inflated with a pump, by the artist Tristin Lowe. Amazing.
What makes it even better is that there are four galleries to explore and apparently they don't have security cameras because you have to be chaperoned by a museum staff member when you enter. So you basically get a personal tour guide the whole time you are in the museum and the people who have taken me around have been incredibly nice and knowledgeable. They are usually artists themselves and some of them have studio space in the workshop.
It's small and relatively unknown, but the price and quality of experience you get at FWM makes it one of the best deals in Philly.
1 comment:
a what what?? A fabric museum?? Philadelphia just gets better and better!
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