Discipline: Visual Art – installation

Tabitha Arnold

Discipline: Visual Art – installation
Region: Chattanooga, TN
MacDowell fellowships: 2023

Tabitha Arnold makes labor-intensive art. Born in Chattanooga, TN, she studied painting in Philadelphia before transitioning into weaving and punch needle embroidery. Her meticulous tapestries, inspired by radical history and her experiences as a worker, organizer, and artist, have been featured in Jacobin Magazine, Hyperallergic, and on issue covers of Dissent Magazine. Arnold is a finalist for the 2023 Arte Laguna prize in Venice, Italy, and a member of the American Craft Council's 2022 Emerging Artist Cohort.

At MacDowell, she explored a sculptural approach to tapestry, bringing her tradition of textile storytelling into a hanging object that takes on three-dimensional form. Gospel, is a punch needle embroidered rug about the history of the South as a site of revolutionary struggle, expressed through its traditions of folk music, fiber art, and Christian spirituality.

Studios

Nef

Tabitha Arnold worked in the Nef studio.

Nef Studio, the first entirely new studio built after 1937, was donated by esteemed photographer, explorer, author, and MacDowell Fellow Evelyn Steffanson Nef in 1992. Endowed funds for the studio’s maintenance in perpetuity and an annual Fellowship for photographers were given in addition to funds for construction. Mrs. Nef said she had known about MacDowell all her…

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