Evaluation Criteria
Applications will be evaluated based on:
Conceptual strength and relevance
Engagement with textile and fiber as a critical language
Artistic coherence
Spatial awareness
Professional readiness and feasibility
Evaluation Criteria
Applications will be evaluated based on:
Conceptual strength and relevance
Engagement with textile and fiber as a critical language
Artistic coherence
Spatial awareness
Professional readiness and feasibility
Open Call
How to apply
All applications must be submitted online via Google Forms.
Incomplete or late applications will not be considered.
Applicants will be asked to provide:
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Basic contact information
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A short artist statement and project proposal
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A brief biography or CV
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Up to 5 images of relevant work (with captions)
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For time-based or performative proposals: video links (Vimeo or YouTube)
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Installation requirements and technical notes
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A brief statement addressing the relationship of the proposal to America250
Each Open Call requires a separate application form and corresponding fee. Fees are non-refundable and support jury honoraria, administrative coordination, and the Triennial's sustainability.
Artists may apply to more than one Open Call. Each application requires a separate fee.
Beyond the Loom: Threading the Americas is an open call inviting Fiber Artists Miami Association (FAMA) artists to explore the depth and vitality of Guatemalan textile traditions. This juried group exhibition welcomes proposals that highlight how these enduring practices continue to inspire new artistic expressions across the Americas. Artists are encouraged to honor ancestral wisdom, investigate foundational philosophies, and experiment with contemporary forms to create works that both celebrate history and imagine our collective future.
Beyond the Loom offers artists the freedom to interpret and respond to the rich textile traditions of the Maya weavers of Guatemala. Drawing inspiration from their visual language, woven histories, cosmologies, landscapes, and ancestral lineages expressed through color, geometry, weaving, and embroidery, the exhibition celebrates textiles as living repositories of memory and identity. It honors these enduring traditions, where every motif embodies generations of knowledge and every woven surface affirms the resilience, creativity, and cultural continuity of Maya communities.
The show will take place in January 2027 and is curated by Francine Birbragher for Fundación Paiz para la Educación y la Cultura, Guatemala. The organization is a prominent Guatemalan non-profit organization dedicated to social transformation through art, culture, and education. Established in 1978 as a corporate social responsibility initiative, it has evolved into a family-run entity that directly impacts over 60,000 people annually across Central America.
The Fiber Artists Miami Association is excited to collaborate with Fundación Paiz in bringing a piece of Miami’s diverse cultural landscape to the heart of the ancient Maya civilization in Guatemala.
Presented by Miami International Fine Arts (MIFA) in collaboration with FAMA and Threading the City and its flagship initiative Threading the City.
Presented by Miami International Fine Arts (MIFA) in collaboration with FAMA and Threading the City and its flagship initiative Threading the City.
How to apply
All applications must be submitted online via Google Forms.
Incomplete or late applications will not be considered.
Applicants will be asked to provide:
-
Basic contact information
-
A short artist statement and project proposal
-
A brief biography or CV
-
Up to 5 images of relevant work (with captions)
-
For time-based or performative proposals: video links (Vimeo or YouTube)
-
Installation requirements and technical notes
-
A brief statement addressing the relationship of the proposal to America250
Each Open Call requires a separate application form and corresponding fee.
Presented by Miami International Fine Arts (MIFA) in collaboration with FAMA and
Threading the City and its flagship initiative Threading the City.
MIAMI FIBER TRIENNIAL 2026
Presented by Miami International Fine Arts (MIFA) in collaboration with FAMA and Threading the City and its flagship initiative Threading the City.
Open Call
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Who: Fiber Artists Miami Association in Collaboration with Fundación Paiz and
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Curator: Francine Birbragher
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What: We are accepting proposals for textile works that are 2D or relief, travel-friendly, and lightweight. Pieces must be easily foldable for airline travel and shipping. Please estimate and include the weight of your artwork in your proposal, as all accepted pieces will need to be shipped to the venue. No exceptions to the weight requirement.
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Where: Fundación Paiz para la Educación y la Cultura, Guatemala.
About
1
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Eligibility: FAMA local, national, or International artists. Must be a current member or become a FAMA member to send a proposal. Outside artists or non-members pay a $100 flat fee. Membership will be verified at the time of proposal. National and International artists will incur shipping costs.
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Submission Materials: Send sketches, drawings, mock-ups, and a full text description of the idea for the work with images and a description of the inspiration for the new work. This is new work that results from a deep study of Guatemalan textile weaving for this exhibition. 3–5 high-res portfolio images of previous work, an artist statement for the work, a bio, and a resume/CV. Jurors will look at your previous work to see the relation to your proposal.
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Entry Fees: Free submission but must be a FAMA member, https://www.fiberartists-miamiassociation.com/membership. $100 for non-members
Eligibility and Requirements
2
Timeline
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Key Dates: Proposals due September 15, 2026
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Artists Notification: September 25, 2026
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A dedicated reception will take place at Fundación Paiz's new Cultural Center, TBA
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Exhibition Dates: TBA
Timeline
3
MIAMI FIBER TRIENNIAL 2026
Presented by Miami International Fine Arts (MIFA) in collaboration with FAMA and Threading the City and its flagship initiative Threading the City.
MIAMI FIBER TRIENNIAL 2026
Presented by Miami International Fine Arts (MIFA) in collaboration with FAMA and Threading the City and its flagship initiative Threading the City.
Transparency and Conflict of Interest
Jury members recuse themselves in cases of conflict of interest
Selection is based solely on merit
Application fees do not influence outcomes
Due to volume, individual feedback cannot be provided
Important Dates
Open Call Launch/ March 1, 2026
Application Deadline/ March 31, 2026
Jury Review Period/ April 1–15, 2026
Selected Artists Announced/ April 20, 2026
Triennial Opening/ Thursday, June 11, 2026
Closing/ July 24, 2026
Venue
Transparency and Conflict of Interest
Jury members recuse themselves in cases of conflict of interest
Selection is based solely on merit
Application fees do not influence outcomes
Due to volume, individual feedback cannot be provided
Important Dates
Open Call Launch/ March 1, 2026
Application Deadline/ March 31, 2026
Jury Review Period/ April 1–15, 2026
Selected Artists Announced/ April 20, 2026
Triennial Opening/ Thursday, June 11, 2026
Closing/ July 24, 2026
Venue
The Triennial is a major institutional platform dedicated to contemporary textile, fiber, and expanded material-based practices.
America250 marks 250 years since the founding narratives of the United States—an anniversary that invites not celebration, but critical reflection. Through textile and fiber practices, the Miami Fiber Triennial 2026 examines how the American project has been built, repaired, controlled, protected, and resisted through material systems such as labor, migration, industry, domesticity, extraction, and care.
Textile becomes a lens through which America is read not as a singular history, but as a layered fabric—woven from multiple temporalities, geographies, bodies, and lived experiences.
In addition to exhibitions, the Triennial will feature a Didactic Room, hosting workshops, talks, and educational programs, alongside a curated program of film screenings addressing textile histories, labor, and material culture within the American context.
About MFT 2026
Partners and Sponsors
Partner: Fundación Paiz para la Educación y la Cultura, Guatemala.
Sponsor: “With the support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners.”
Supported by the Knight Art + Tech Expansion Fund in Miami
About MFT 2026
The Triennial is a major institutional platform dedicated to contemporary textile, fiber, and expanded material-based practices across interior, collective, and exterior spaces.
America250 marks 250 years since the founding narratives of the United States—an anniversary that invites not celebration, but critical reflection. Through textile and fiber practices, the Miami Fiber Triennial 2026 examines how the American project has been built, repaired, controlled, protected, and resisted through material systems such as labor, migration, industry, domesticity, extraction, and care.
Textile becomes a lens through which America is read not as a singular history, but as a layered fabric—woven from multiple temporalities, geographies, bodies, and lived experiences.
In addition to exhibitions, the Triennial will feature a Didactic Room, hosting workshops, talks, and educational programs, alongside a curated program of film screenings addressing textile histories, labor, and material culture within the American context.
The Triennial is a major institutional platform dedicated to contemporary textile, fiber, and expanded material-based practices.
America250 marks 250 years since the founding narratives of the United States—an anniversary that invites not celebration, but critical reflection. Through textile and fiber practices, the Miami Fiber Triennial 2026 examines how the American project has been built, repaired, controlled, protected, and resisted through material systems such as labor, migration, industry, domesticity, extraction, and care.
Textile becomes a lens through which America is read not as a singular history, but as a layered fabric—woven from multiple temporalities, geographies, bodies, and lived experiences.
In addition to exhibitions, the Triennial will feature a Didactic Room, hosting workshops, talks, and educational programs, alongside a curated program of film screenings addressing textile histories, labor, and material culture within the American context.
About MFT 2026
Interior / Intimacy
The personal, domestic, and bodily scale of textile as memory, protection, labor, and care.
Curatorial Frame
Collective / Urban Fabric
Threading the City as a shared civic surface, where multiple voices converge into a collective narrative shaped by movement, exchange, and coexistence.
Exterior / Living Systems
The landscape as an active collaborator, where textile engages ecology, time, environmental responsibility, and non-human agency.
Together, these scales position textile as a critical, spatial, and embodied language operating across intimacy, architecture, ecology, and the urban experience.
Interior / Intimacy
The personal, domestic, and bodily scale of textile as memory, protection, labor, and care.
Curatorial Frame
Collective / Urban Fabric
Threading the City as a shared civic surface, where multiple voices converge into a collective narrative shaped by movement, exchange, and coexistence.
Exterior / Living Systems
The landscape as an active collaborator, where textile engages ecology, time, environmental responsibility, and non-human agency.
Together, these scales position textile as a critical, spatial, and embodied language operating across intimacy, architecture, ecology, and the urban experience.
Confirmed Solo Exhibitions
By Invitation
Patricia Calero — Suspended Time
Curated by Katherine Chacón
Using industrial seatbelts as material, Calero creates abstract and kinetic works that reflect on impact, protection, and duration. Her practice transforms systems of safety and restraint into tension-filled compositions in which time appears suspended.
Mayra Alpízar — Textile, Intimate Matter
Curated by Katherine Chacón
An exploration of textile as a tactile and emotional extension of the body. Alpízar’s work foregrounds intimacy, gesture, and material memory, positioning fiber as a site of vulnerability, presence, and embodied knowledge.
Open Calls
MIFA invites artists working in textile, fiber, and expanded material practices to apply to the following Open Calls:
01 — Solo Exhibition (Room D)
America250: From a Single View
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Exhibition Type: Solo Exhibition
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Medium: Textile, fiber, installation, mixed media
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Application Fee: $60 USD
Description
This Open Call seeks one artist to present a cohesive solo exhibition that understands textile not as surface, but as a system—a structure tied to labor, protection, control, repetition, and resistance.
The selected artist will engage material histories embedded in everyday fibers—industrial, repurposed, or hybrid—and expand textile language into spatial, conceptual, and political territory.
Proposals are encouraged to explore:
- Textile as an infrastructure or mechanism - Abstraction rooted in material history - Repetition, tension, and time - Expanded textile practices beyond decoration
In relation to America250, proposals should critically engage with questions of labor, protection, migration, infrastructure, repetition, and resistance within the American context—historical or contemporary.
Collectives may apply, provided the proposal functions as a unified conceptual and spatial project and demonstrates a sustained history of collaboration.
Open Calls
MIFA invites artists working in textile, fiber, and expanded material practices to apply to the following Open Calls:
01 — Solo Exhibition (Room D)
America250: From a Single View
-
Exhibition Type: Solo Exhibition
-
Medium: Textile, fiber, installation, mixed media
-
Application Fee: $60 USD
Description
This Open Call seeks one artist to present a cohesive solo exhibition that understands textile not as surface, but as a system—a structure tied to labor, protection, control, repetition, and resistance.
The selected artist will engage material histories embedded in everyday fibers—industrial, repurposed, or hybrid—and expand textile language into spatial, conceptual, and political territory.
Proposals are encouraged to explore:
- Textile as an infrastructure or mechanism - Abstraction rooted in material history - Repetition, tension, and time - Expanded textile practices beyond decoration
In relation to America250, proposals should critically engage with questions of labor, protection, migration, infrastructure, repetition, and resistance within the American context—historical or contemporary.
Collectives may apply, provided the proposal functions as a unified conceptual and spatial project and demonstrates a sustained history of collaboration.
02 — Group Exhibition (Room E)
Threading the City: America250
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Exhibition Type: Group Exhibition
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Medium: Textile, fiber, video, performance (wall-based), mixed media
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Application Fee: $30 USD
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Open to FAMA members only
Technical Parameters
Please note:
Only wall-based works are accepted
No sculptural or freestanding installations
Works must be suitable for standard gallery wall installation
Description
In alignment with America250, Threading the City foregrounds textile as a shared surface—one that carries layered histories of migration, labor, tradition, and adaptation within the American context.
The exhibition prioritizes works that engage fiber as narrative, abstraction, or cultural memory within a collective framework, emphasizing the city as a woven space shaped by multiple voices and material histories.
02 — Group Exhibition (Room E)
Threading the City: America250
-
Exhibition Type: Group Exhibition
-
Medium: Textile, fiber, video, performance (wall-based), mixed media
-
Application Fee: $30 USD
-
Open to FAMA members only
Technical Parameters
Please note:
Only wall-based works are accepted
No sculptural or freestanding installations
Works must be suitable for standard gallery wall installation
Description
In alignment with America250, Threading the City foregrounds textile as a shared surface—one that carries layered histories of migration, labor, tradition, and adaptation within the American context.
The exhibition prioritizes works that engage fiber as narrative, abstraction, or cultural memory within a collective framework, emphasizing the city as a woven space shaped by multiple voices and material histories.
03 — Exterior Interventions
America250: An External View
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Exhibition Type: Exterior Interventions
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Location: Trees, gardens, and landscaped areas at MIFA
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Medium: Textile, fiber, natural, or hybrid materials
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Application Fee: $20 USD
Description
This Open Call invites artists to create textile- and fiber-based interventions specifically designed for trees and garden spaces. Textile is approached as a gesture of coexistence, care, and attentiveness—responding to living systems rather than dominating them.
Works may wrap, hang, rest, or suspend from branches and garden structures, engaging wind, light, shade, humidity, and time.
In the context of America250, these interventions reflect on the relationship between American expansion, land use, extraction, and ecological responsibility—proposing textile as a counter-gesture of care, repair, and coexistence.
Key considerations:
Non-invasive and non-damaging installation
Respect for living organisms
Natural, recycled, or biodegradable materials are encouraged
Temporary and time-based works welcome
No nails, staples, or permanent attachments permitted
03 — Exterior Interventions
America250: An External View
-
Exhibition Type: Exterior Interventions
-
Location: Trees, gardens, and landscaped areas at MIFA
-
Medium: Textile, fiber, natural, or hybrid materials
-
Application Fee: $20 USD
Description
This Open Call invites artists to create textile- and fiber-based interventions specifically designed for trees and garden spaces. Textile is approached as a gesture of coexistence, care, and attentiveness—responding to living systems rather than dominating them.
Works may wrap, hang, rest, or suspend from branches and garden structures, engaging wind, light, shade, humidity, and time.
In the context of America250, these interventions reflect on the relationship between American expansion, land use, extraction, and ecological responsibility—proposing textile as a counter-gesture of care, repair, and coexistence.
Key considerations:
Non-invasive and non-damaging installation
Respect for living organisms
Natural, recycled, or biodegradable materials are encouraged
Temporary and time-based works welcome
No nails, staples, or permanent attachments permitted
04 — Activations
Performances, Workshops & Public Programs
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Application Fee: $10 USD
Description
This Open Call invites artists, educators, and collectives to propose performances, workshops, and participatory activations that expand the Miami Fiber Triennial beyond the exhibition space.
Proposals may include:
Textile-based performances
Community workshops
Participatory actions
Artist talks or demonstrations
Experimental or time-based activations
Projects should engage textile as a social, embodied, and pedagogical tool, and may respond to themes of America250, labor, migration, care, and material knowledge.
Selected activations may take place in the Triennial’s Didactic Room, conceived as a space for learning, dialogue, and embodied knowledge exchange.
04 — Activations
Performances, Workshops & Public Programs
-
Application Fee: $20 USD
Description
This Open Call invites artists, educators, and collectives to propose performances, workshops, and participatory activations that expand the Miami Fiber Triennial beyond the exhibition space.
Proposals may include:
Textile-based performances
Community workshops
Participatory actions
Artist talks or demonstrations
Experimental or time-based activations
Projects should engage textile as a social, embodied, and pedagogical tool, and may respond to themes of America250, labor, migration, care, and material knowledge.
Selected activations may take place in the Triennial’s Didactic Room, conceived as a space for learning, dialogue, and embodied knowledge exchange.
Jury Panel
All applications will be reviewed by a professional jury composed of curators, artists, and cultural leaders with extensive experience in contemporary textile and fiber practices:
Pit Brant -
Artist and Educator
Curatorial Panel
Katherine Chacón
Marco Caridad
Shirley Moreira
Olga Garcia-Mayoral
Maria Alcala Barcelo
Monica Czukerberg -
Artist and Educator
Bernice Steinbaum -
Gallerist