Felting the Future
Free Community Art Workshop
Sunday, August 23 | 1:00-3:00pm
Fiber Art Workshop
Free for 25 participants* – registration is required – no art experience necessary
Join artist Kris Grenier to explore wet-felting, needle-felting, and embroidery techniques. Each participant will create their own unique piece of fiber art, which will contribute to a statewide art project.
Supported by the Kentucky Foundation for Women’s Art Meets Activism program, Kris will combine the works of 500 Kentuckians into a vibrant textile mural. This mural will be exhibited across the Commonwealth for years to come, conveying a powerful message of hope, resilience, and community.
On Sunday, August 23, the Baker Hunt Art and Cultural Center will be filled with women and girls learning the art of felting. During the Felting the Future workshop, attendees will explore wet-felting, needle-felting, and embroidery techniques to create their own
10-by-10-inch wool panel. Each square will become part of 20-by-6-foot textile mural that will travel throughout the Commonwealth in the coming years. Felting the Future is a project organized by Harrison County artist Kris Grenier and supported by an Art Meets Activism grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women.
“In this time of political polarization and divisiveness, I think hope and coming together are revolutionary acts,” Grenier said. “Felting the Future is a way to celebrate the power of creative expression and the potential of collective action.” The workshop will begin with a reflective exercise inviting participants to respond to prompts about hope, resilience, and the advice they would offer their younger selves.
They will then translate those written reflections into visual imagery in their fiber art. The written responses will accompany the textile mural at art exhibitions, providing another entry point for viewers to connect with the work.
Participants will range in age from students to retirees—an intergenerational element Grenier calls one of her favorite aspects of the project.
“The felting kits vary according to age,” Grenier explained. “The youngest participants receive the bright and vibrant colors we associate with childhood, while older participants’ kits are less saturated and more muted. When the mural is done, not only will the gradations of color and saturation add visual interest, but they will also tell a story about both the universality of hope and the way it evolves over our lifetimes.”
Soon after Grenier visits Kenton County, the statewide series of workshops she began last fall will be coming to an end, as she turns her focus to assembling the individual artworks into a textile mural.
Registration is required, space is limited for this FREE workshop! *This class is specific to women, girls, and non-binary folks. Ages 12 and up are also welcome but must register with an adult.
