East End Arts is excited to a new textile program for seniors: TextileTales! This is our sixth season of New Horizons programming, which takes place over 8 months and is presented in a hybrid way to our participants. Please note that registration for this program has now passed, and the program is underway!
Textile Tales
August 2026 – March 2027
Taking Place In-Person at our Clubhouse, and Online through Zoom!
ABOUT THE PROGRAM, SENIORS IN THE EAST:
Textile Tales is a fibre-based art program that engages 40 local seniors in the east end of Toronto try new textile and fibre art skills, learn basic digital literacy skills, and connect and get creative with other seniors online and in-person at our Clubhouse! Participants of this program also played a key role in choosing the workshops of this program: all members got to vote on our artist applications!
Textile Tales will take place over eight months – August 2026 to March 2027 – and will feature 8 monthly textile-based art workshops, alternating between online and in-person delivery. Each workshop will be taught by different artist facilitators who will teach different creative and unique textile-based techniques. Each participant will be given several blank textile canvas squares at the beginning of the program to try out and execute the different textile techniques they will be taught throughout the 8 months.
Throughout the season participating seniors will also receive a combination of creative prompts through a shared private Facebook group to help keep inspiration and creativity high, and there will be even more opportunities for in-person connection through monthly creative get-togethers we call Tea & Craft sessions at our Clubhouse, for those who are interested and able! Textile Tales will culminate with an in-person exhibition at St. Matthew’s Clubhouse where all of the canvas pieces created will be shown in a final exhibition in March 2027, bringing together the “Textile Tales” of each Senior in one room for the community to see.
WHAT OUR PARTICIPANTS RECEIVE:
All of our Textile Tales Participants receive:
- Several blank textile canvas squares to test and execute their textile art skills on (likely 8″x8″ in size);
- All the art materials required to engage in each of the monthly textile arts workshops;
- Monthly arts workshops (Online using Zoom, or in-person at our Clubhouse) with our talented artist facilitators to learn new creative techniques to apply to their textile canvases;
- Bi-weekly art prompts sent to our Facebook Group to spark their creativity and give them inspiration;
- Monthly tea afternoon sessions at St. Matthew’s Clubhouse to make and network with the other seniors;
- Support on using online technology like Zoom and social media platforms, as well as one on one tech support throughout the course of the program;
- A special in-person exhibition to show off the final textile pieces at St. Matthew’s Clubhouse;
- And a unique opportunity to be a part of a vibrant community of creative elders!
ABOUT THE WORKSHOPS & ARTISTS:
Pardis Pahlavanlu
Fabric Printmaking with Lino
Online Workshop | September 11, 2026
- Workshop Description: Participants will join Pardis to print lino of a word and its related imagery onto a piece of fabric. Participants will reflect on the meaning of a broad word chosen by East End Arts (such as “Community” or “Together”) that can be applied to their lives and journeys. Letters spelling out the chosen word will be stuck onto the fabric by participants. Drawn imagery will be transferred onto a lino block using a demonstrated graphite pressure method and then carved, inked, and printed as a repeating pattern onto the fabric pieces. The letter stickers will then be peeled off to reveal the word that had been chosen, creating a small banner. At the end of the workshop, participants will share their banners with the group and express why they chose their imagery to go along with the word. Through this brainstorm, designing, and carving on soft lino, participants may meditate on their experiences and express themselves through printmaking.
- Artist Bio: Pardis Pahlavanlu is an artist and illustrator living as a guest between Tkaronto (Toronto) and unceded Coast Salish territories (Vancouver). While her academic studies have revolved around systems of power in contemporary colonial states, her artistic work has centred on the healing that is necessary in these contexts. In her workshops, Pardis aims to make art-marking accessible to all, allowing room for imagination and play to take place. She meets people where they are at and offers various approaches for teaching printmaking, collaging and other mediums. Her goal is that participants walk away with pride in their learning capacities and an eagerness to learn more, whatever that may be.
- Website: pardispahlavanlu.com
- Instagram: @ppahlavanlu
Carla Sierra Suárez
“Sun Stories” – Textile Solarfast
In-Person Workshop | October 2, 2026
- Workshop Description: Participants will join Carla to use solarfast techniques and write poetry to create their own commemorative “Sun Story” on a fabric canvas square. Participants will paint their square with solarfast, which is a less intensive “cyanotype,” and use sunlight to imprint various objects from their home and neighborhood (ie. trinkets, flowers, jewelry, toys, keys, etc) onto the fabric. Guided writing exercises will empower participants to create handwritten poems relating to their selected objects and personal stories. These poems will be written on transparent sheets that will also be exposed to sunlight and imprinted on the canvas square. By combining both techniques, participants will reflect and share memories of their life through their belongings, strengthen their personal identities, and connect with one another through storytelling. At the workshop’s end, participants will create a beautiful imprint that memorializes their voices, their life, and their “Sun Story”.
- Artist Bio: Carla Sierra Suárez is a Mexican multidisciplinary artist based in Toronto. She creates artworks in varying mediums such as textile, sculpture, printmaking, poetry and photography. Her holistic approach incorporates her fine arts training from OCAD, her background in the textile industry, as well as her passion for community arts. She is committed to creating safe and inclusive gathering spaces where community members can connect and learn to express themselves through art-making. Regardless of age, language or abilities.
- Website: carlasierras.wixsite.com
- Instagram: @carla.sierra.suarez and @rootsandstories.art
Shira Yavor
Kinusaiga
Online Workshop | October 16, 2026
- Workshop Description: Participants will join Shira and think of a place or moment that is memorable to them that they would like to recreate in Kinusaiga (for example, a home, a place, or time spent in nature). Kinusaiga is a modern Japanese textile art form from the 1980s and has adapted from older Japanese textile arts. It is like painting with fabric or quilting without sewing. The art is made by tucking fabric pieces into grooves that are cut into a foam base. With a craft knife, a drawing is usually used to guide cutting lines while the edge of a seam ripper is used to push the edges of each fabric piece into the grooves. Beyond this workshop, some artists combine Kinusaiga with embroidery, beading, or painting to add even more detail or texture to the artwork. This technique is popular for nature scenes, however there is no limit to what the subject matter may be. Prompts will be provided to spark ideas in the workshop, but participants may use the technique for any idea or story they would like to tell.
- Artist Bio: Shira Yavor is a Canadian-Israeli Toronto-based designer and artist. She holds a B.Des in fashion, specializes in illustration and textile design and leads the creative studio yaya by shira. Her work is influenced by the themes of nature, sustainability and biomimicry. Her illustrations often depict Canadian wildlife and botanical elements. Yavor’s work has been featured in group shows and festivals including DesignTO, The Space Market at Stackt, Long Winter TV, and Long Exposure Festival. Most recently her mixed-media artwork series “Wild Recollections” was featured in a solo show at Supernova Coffee.
- Website: yayabyshira.com
- Instagram: @yayabyshira
Mo Asaad
Punch Needle Art
In-Person Workshop | November 13, 2026
- Workshop Description: Participants will join Mo to use punch needle, a type of yarn-embroidery art, to make something based on a simple pleasure (such as a favourite plant or the participant’s own name). Participants will draw first on a piece of paper and once a design is chosen, they will proceed to draw their work on their textile square. By feeding yarn through the needle, participants will learn how to thread a punching needle as they fill in their design. It is recommended participants come with a design ready to save time, however the technique is easy to pick up and guidance will be provided as participants start and finish their art. The punch needling process allows for connection through the time it takes while careful reconstruction lets materials come to life. Punch needling can also often be repurposed into seatcovers, coasters, pot holders and more! Customizing spaces in small ways has meaningful impacts at every life stage as art and textiles continue to tell stories and outlive us.
- Artist Bio: Mo is a Toronto Based Multidisciplinary artist with a practice deeply rooted in understanding identity through intersectional lenses. As a disabled, trans, African artist, they choose to create art that is rooted in reclamation and storytelling. Being a community artist has led Mo to seeking answers for nuanced topics. What ways do we move in the world, where does it come from, and why do we repeat the patterns. Mo’s investigation of identity is done through textile work, zines, and more! Working as a facilitator, they strive to provide others with tools for others to navigate societies and ways to look deeper with in oneself and the world.
- Website: moasaadcreates.squarespace.com
- Instagram: @mo.asaad_artcollective
Joel Rodriguez
“Delicate is Difficult” – Embroidered Photography
Online Workshop | December 4, 2026
- Workshop Description: Participants will join Joel and embroider pre-printed photographic images to transform 8″ x 8″ textile squares into personal works of storytelling and memory. As a starting point for reflection, each participant will receive a pre-printed fabric square featuring a black-and-white photographic image drawn from archival and everyday sources. Using provided embroidery floss and needles, participants will then stitch directly into the photographic surface and respond to the images: highlighting meaningful details, obscuring elements, or adding colour and gesture that reflect personal experience. This allows each textile square to become a form of visual storytelling shaped by individual memory, emotion, and interpretation. The technique does not require prior sewing experience and will be demonstrated step-by-step. All materials will also be provided in advance ensuring accessibility and ease of participation. By the end of the session, each participant will have created a stitched photographic textile that reflects a personal narrative, forming part of a collective exploration of memory.
- Artist Bio: Joel Rodriguez is a documentary photographer and visual artist whose work often focuses on the tangibility of memory through the analogue medium. His most recent solo show, Delicate is Difficult, looks back at nearly a decade of image-making by re-interpreting the act of remembering using photography as both a foundation and medium for intervention. His darkroom enlargements are pierced and embellished with coloured embroidery floss, bridging the gap between what is remembered and what is felt. Rodriguez holds a BFA in Film Production from York University, and has exhibited his work at Arts Etobicoke, Latcham Arts Centre, Gallery 44, Nuit Blanche, and CONTACT Photography Festival.
- Website: joelrodriguez.fortmat.com
- Instagram: @hoelrodiguezz
Camilla Leonelli Calzado/MIMISIKKO
Wet Felting
In-Person Workshop | January 15, 2027
- Workshop Description: Participants will join Camilla and be introduced to wet felting as a tactile and accessible textile practice rooted in material exploration and storytelling. Working with wool roving, warm water, and soap, participants will create small-scale wet felt pieces (approximately 8″ x 8″), learning how simple materials can transform through touch, pressure, and time. The session encourages experimentation with texture, layering, and intuitive design, where each person’s process naturally develops in a unique way, making every piece personal and distinct. The environment will be relaxed, supportive, and sensory-aware, allowing participants to work comfortably with texture, temperature, and touch as they explore felting as both an open-ended process and a form of expression.
- Artist Bio: Camilla Leonelli Calzado is a multidisciplinary artist and researcher whose practice explores diasporic memory, transculturation, and the material languages of home. Born in Santiago de Cuba and raised in Canada, her work navigates the space between cultural inheritance and geographic distance, using textiles, found objects, sound, and performance to create immersive, sensory environments. Her practice is grounded in research creation, anthropology, and auto-ethnographic methodologies, drawing on personal archives, oral histories, and embodied knowledge to examine how culture is carried, altered, and remembered across time and place. By treating textiles as both method and archive, Leonelli Calzado reimagines how everyday materials can carry personal and collective histories. Her work is also committed to accessibility, community engagement, and expanding the role of craft within contemporary art discourse. Through this lens, she creates spaces where diasporic identities can be felt, remembered, and collectively redefined through making.
Tiana Atherton
Textile Rag Weaving
Online Workshop | February 5, 2027
- Workshop Description: Participants will join Tiana to learn how to upcycle their old fabrics, clothing, and yarns into a new textile inspired by the resourceful technique of rag weaving. Participants are encouraged to bring their own fabrics, which they will cut into strips and weave into new meanings. The workshop will explore the lifecycles of the textiles of daily life and use their stories to create new artworks. This workshop makes weaving accessible by using a reusable cardboard loom and pre-loved textiles as material. Participants will learn to cut strips, weave plain weave, start and finish a weaving, and make some basic patterns (stripes, diagonal lines, stitching). The finished piece will measure 8″ x 8″.
- Artist Bio: Tiana Atherton is an educator and textile artist with a wide range of experience including spinning, wet felting, weaving and piecing. She holds a BFA from Concordia University in Fibres and Material Practices, and loves learning and talking about the technical and historical aspects of textile creation. Tiana has participated in the Ós Textile Residency in Blonduos, Iceland and has led workshops at the Textile Museum of Canada and Campbell House Museum. She is currently an instructor at Riverdale Farm where she teaches textile classes and workshops with a focus on sheep’s wool and sustainability.
Taruna Singh
“Printed Threads of Nature” – Gelli Printing and Embroidery
In-Person Workshop | February 19, 2027
- Workshop Description: Participants will join Taruna for a collaborative textile and Gelli print workshop that will explore nature, memory, and connection through accessible printmaking techniques and embroidery. Expressive 8″ textile canvas squares will be created using Gelli plates, brayers, and acrylic paint combined with simple hand stitching. Participants will explore using organic materials (like flowers and fruit cross sections) for personal storytelling and use textural tools (including Indian wooden printing blocks) to build texture, patterns, and imagery on their textile canvas squares. Once printed surfaces are dry, participants will add simple running stitch embroidery to input lines, shapes, or meaningful words, such as their names, into the work. The workshop is simple, meditative, and open-ended, allowing all participants to create meaningful textile pieces within a two-hour session. Individual squares may later stitched together into a larger quilt-like installation for the final exhibition, symbolizing how individual stories come together to form a shared community narrative.
- Artist Bio: Taruna Singh is a Punjabi-Canadian mixed media artist based in Ontario. Her work reflects on memory, movement, and transformation, shaped by the cultures and places she calls home. Originally trained in Art and Advertising Design at New York City College of Technology, Singh spent many years working as a graphic designer before returning to painting in 2020. While her design background informs her sense of composition, her current practice is guided more by intuition, texture, and the emotional pull of materials. Over the past five years, Singh has exhibited in more than twenty exhibitions across Canada, including a solo exhibition at Synonym Shop in Hamilton and participation in the Art Gallery of Hamilton Art Sale. Her work is held in public and private collections in Canada, India, the United States, and Europe, including St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. Alongside her studio practice, she facilitates mixed-media and Gelli printing workshops with local arts organizations, sharing the joy and accessibility of art-making.
- Website: tarunasinghart.com
- Instagram: @tarunasinghart
PHOTO UPDATES FROM OUR TEXTILE TALES PROGRAM:
Come back to this webpage often, as we will update with new photos as the program progresses!
FUNDER OF SENIORS IN THE EAST: A STORYBOOK PROGRAM
Textile Tales is funded by the Government of Canada’s New Horizons for Seniors Program!