Join artist Megumi Shauna Arai for a Patchwork Noren making workshop, focused on natural dyeing, composition, and hand sewing.
🗓️ Sunday, March 22nd
⏰ 2 to 7 pm
📍 67 West St., Studio 513
Noren are traditional Japanese fabric dividers, often hung in doorways, entrances, or on walls. Both functional and expressive, they delineate space while offering endless possibilities for composition, texture, and narrative.
This 5-hour workshop will guide participants through the process of creating a patchwork noren, beginning with fabric selection and natural dyeing, and concluding with sewing and assembly.
Workshop structure:
- Selecting fabrics and laying out compositions
- Natural dyeing using a single botanical dye bath: Marigold, chosen to highlight the energy and warmth of spring
- Sewing and assembly
Participants will sew up to three patches during the workshop, either independently or with guidance from the artist and her team. Pieces may be finished at home, or participants may opt to leave their work for completion for an additional per-piece fee (optional and intended to keep the workshop accessible to all skill levels).
Enjoy drinks and light refreshments.
ARTIST BIO
Megumi Shauna Arai (b. 1989) lives and works in New York City. Her practice explores points of encounter, practices of embodiment, enfolding and unfolding aesthetics, and the interconnectedness of material and immaterial worlds. She holds an interdisciplinary BA in Sociology, Embodiment Studies, Political Science, and Mysticism from the CUNY Unique and Individualized Studies Program.
Arai was an artist-in-residence at COMMONS/OPPES in Chiba, Japan. Her recent solo exhibition was presented at KOKI ARTS, Tokyo (2025). Recent exhibitions include Immanent Infinite, Object & Thing (2025); Group Shop Show, Bridget Donahue Gallery (2024); Summer Arrangement: Object & Thing at LongHouse (2023); Object & Thing at Madoo (2022); At The Noyes House, Blum & Poe, Mendes Wood DM and Object & Thing (2020); Lore: Reimagined, Wing Luke Museum (2018); and Midst, Jacob Lawrence Gallery (2018).
Recent residencies include the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Library, Headlands Center for the Arts, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Her pedagogical collaborations include Field Meridians, an art-based urban ecology curriculum focused on social practice and resilience in Crown Heights, Brooklyn; The Museum of Modern Art public programs; and The Mothership, an eco-feminist art and ecology center in Tangier, Morocco.
