About Us
CONGRATULATIONS IACA CYCLE #13 MINI-
GRANT RECIPIENT, MIRIAM OMURA!

Click here to learn about our other Cycle #13 mini-grant winner, Susan Vitali.























































Congratulations to Miriam on a successful grant application! 

The following is her grant application:

"I began my full-time studio practice in 2013. My method of weaving an image, both time-consuming and reflective, produces the particular effect of a ghost print. It involves weaving, unweaving, and reweaving fully dye-painted cloth. There is an allowance for both full control of the threads and disorderly overlaid patterning in the way the image comes together in its final form. This causes the woven grid to shift, and the image to pixilate, while retaining familiarity. 

With this grant, I would be able to more deeply examine human relationships and conversations within social issues relating to injustice, equity, poverty, and prejudice. Specifically, I want to integrate the woven imagery process I am developing with the highly technical kasuri skills I recently learned; to push the complexity of the subjects and ideas I have. This grant would give me resources to reinforce my direction and continued work with community advocacy.

I also want to continue my volunteer work in community art groups and projects connected to the Jefferson County Memorial Project and the Bib and Tucker Sew-op, which works with the YWCA and Birmingham Public Libraries. This grant would give me resources to reinforce my focused direction as an artist and continued work with community advocacy, as well as affirm that hand weaving has a place in fine art."






You may be the next grant winner! Click here to apply. 

There is no specific type of artist that we focus on or primarily support. Creative expression comes in a wide variety of artistic disciplines and genres. We are looking for passion and excellence in your craft. Tell us why your work is important to you and how you hope it will impact others. 
Where Eagles Soar (Isaiah 40:31)
Copyright © Miriam Omura

Talking and Listening
tencel, fiber reactive dyes, wood
45x61x1.5"

"The quick speed of social media and the twenty-four hour news cycle can prevent people from pausing to listen and think about what someone is saying before the next flash of immediacy is placed on them. The laborious task of painting text on woven cloth, unweaving, and then overlapping it with other text, leaves the messages scrambled. In the overlapped text of the central panel, the viewer finds sentence fragments that jumble what each of the side panels say."

Click here for more information.
Copyright © Miriam Omura

Obscured
tencel, dyes, wood
40x25x1.5"

"Both the title and image play upon the idea of vagueness. Who is the subject and why is he hiding his face? We obscure some of what we show others, and what people do see of us is obscured by their own perceptions and views."

Click here for more information.

Copyright © Miriam Omura

Facing America, No DAPL
tencel, fiber reactive dyes, cotton, brass hardware ~ 50x25x3"

"I first heard about the water concerns and protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) from my friends in South Dakota and from Native American news sources I follow....The flag is, for me, both a symbol of this country’s injustices and the potential for freedom of expression."

Click here for more information.