*Tiny But Mighty,* ATA’s unjuried member’s show at the Envisions Gallery, Wichita, KS, July 2024

Tiny But Mighty is the American Tapestry Alliance’s (ATA) un-juried members only exhibit. It occurs in even numbered years and historically has been in conjunction with Convergence, HGA’s biennial conference. I’ve written about the show a couple of times before, both in 2022 and 2020.

This year, my week at the conference was so busy that I only made it to the show during the opening, just after ATA’s Speaker’s Session with Sue Lawty’s presentation. It was jam-packed most of the time and my images here are not as sharp as I would have liked. I did manage to get this shot just before leaving with no one in the space, though. Tiny But Mighty ‘24 was in the Envisions Art Gallery in Wichita, KS. This gallery, as quoted in the show’s catalog is “the premier destination for artists and audiences who are blind, visually impaired and/or disabled. Many of the tapestries submitted for exhibition were woven with the intention of being touched.”

You can see from the photo above and below that the individual tapestries were arranged in grids (which I felt worked well). There were a few pieces on pedestals and one column (photo below) in front of the window that does not show up in the overview above.

I wish these photographs could do the show justice, but it’s very difficult to capture the “feel” of the third dimension in a two dimension format. As you can imagine, there was a fair amount of pulled warp pieces and lots of texture. Also shaped tapestries, embellishments, often with non-fiber objects added in.

Because my images were so poor in quality, I’ve taken the liberty of using screenshots here from the American Tapestry Alliance’s Instagram account to highlight some individual pieces that stood out to me. ATA has been posting all the tapestries from the exhibit online, so it’s a great way to get a feel for the wide range of pieces in the show. This is where I would normally advise purchasing a catalog, but I recently heard they are sold out, so hopefully you’re one of the lucky ones that got one!

I especially loved Murray Gibson’s piece, “Spine”. Given the fact that the exhibit was in a gallery focused for the blind, this was an especially elegant solution. It ticked the boxes for visual contrast - and tactile sensibilities at the same time.

Murray Gibson, “Spine” (photo taken from ATA’s Instagram account)

So did Joan Griffin’s “Twilight” - another I especially responded to.

Joan Griffin, “Twilight” (photo taken from ATA’s Instagram account)

Some fun shaped tapestries that caught my attention below:

I also the wide range of techniques and textural choices that were made. Below are top row, left to right: Susan Gare’s, Water Ripples at Sunset, Amy Fincher’s Adrift and Rosemary Hohol’s Resilience.

Bottom row: Shanna Robinson’s Colony 2 , Ginny Wallace’s Ridegeline, and Leslie Bruch’s Willow Whispers.

During my days leading up to visiting the exhibit, I heard from many that it was a great show - and more than a few commented it being their favorite of all the fiber exhibits on display that week. Pretty cool.

But don’t take my word for it! This lovely wrap up was received from Eva Cummings, Gallery Coordinator for Envision Arts Gallery where TBM was held during Convergence.

I want to thank everyone for entering in the Tiny But Mighty exhibition at Envision Arts! We were blown away by every piece, each one was wonderfully unique, and we loved seeing the consideration everyone put into creating tactile artwork. This exhibition was inspiring to guests and artists alike, we had many weavers from Convergence visit and express their excitement about touching this artwork and their excitement to consider accessibility in their own art. We are truly thankful to you all for sharing your artwork with us and our community!
Thank you again, Eva Cummings

Like I said. Pretty cool. Everyone involved should be proud.

Tiny But Mighty 2024