iTextile Museum of CanadaDowntown / Discovery District
Made By Many: 50 Years of the Textile Museum of Canada
A 50th-anniversary show tracing five decades of exhibitions back to the 1970s, with works by Bev Koski, Marimekko, Melinda Patterson, Thor Hansen, You Wenfeng and more.
More in Toronto
Part of the museum's rug collection began as a doormat. Founders Simon Waegemaekers and Max Allen spotted a dirt-caked hooked rug inside the front door of a shop on Mount Pleasant Road and asked the price. The seller said $2. "No one was interested at the time," says senior curator Roxane Shaughnessy, which is why the museum now has so many.
The show runs backwards. You start with recent acquisitions, like Bev Koski's small beadwork recreating the hotel carpet from The Shining, and walk back through five decades toward the oldest pieces, Nazca fragments from Peru dated to AD 100. Near the end hang two hooked rugs the founders collected, first shown in 1985.
The title is literal: the museum closed for eight months in 2025 and raised $150,000 from the public to reopen with this show. It's included in general admission ($15 adults), Wednesday to Sunday, 12 to 5, and a Toronto Public Library Museum + Arts Pass gets you in free.
Look for
The rabbit hooked rug
Near the finale, a late-19th-century hooked rug from Perth County, Ontario shows two rabbits, one of a pair the founders found antique hunting.
The blue jifu
A 19th-century Chinese ceremonial court robe in blue tapestry weave, made with silk, hair and metal thread.
The Nazca fragments
Textile fragments made by the Nazca people of Peru around AD 100, the oldest things in the show and still being studied by a Peruvian researcher.
Bev Koski's beadwork
Small beaded pieces that rebuild patterns from the artist's childhood, including the houndstooth of a dress her mother wore and the carpet from The Shining.
The Secret Codes quilts
Quilts from Black Nova Scotian communities, from a show curated by David Woods, co-founder of the African Nova Scotian Quilters Association.
Good for
- Locals Who've Seen It All
- Nerding Out
- Rainy Days
With kids
Ages 6 to 18 pay $8 and children 5 and under are free. There's an elevator to both gallery floors.
Also at Textile Museum of Canada
On now nearby
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Image credits
8
- Made By Many: 50 Years of the Textile Museum of CanadaPhoto by Darren Rigo
- Dawoud Bey: Material Histories, Living LandscapesCourtesy of Art Gallery of Ontario
- Returning to Ourselves: Rebecca Baird and Kenny Alvin Baird—A Retrospective of Art and Design by Cree Métis SiblingsPhoto by Luca Dichio
- Michael Massie: now and thenCourtesy of Fehely Fine Arts, photo by Renzo Fernandez
- Textile Museum of CanadaRaysonho @ Open Grid Scheduler / Grid Engine, via Wikimedia Commons, CC0
- Campbell House MuseumJK Liu / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Art Gallery of OntarioOwen Byrne / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
- The Image CentreCanmenwalker / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0