GMS is proud to be included in Portland Textile Month this October
Gather:Make:Shelter is honored to be included in this year’s Portland TextileX Month from October 1 - November 1. Our current exhibition, Loose Threads & Raw Edges, will be a part of the programming.
Loose Threads & Raw Edges | Adornment is often reserved for aristocracy. The common person is expected to wear plain colors and utilitarian shapes meant for labor; clothes that blend in. In Loose Threads & Raw Edges, the GMS Collective explores adornment as identity. The exhibition celebrates our artists’ love of color, texture, and responsiveness to material. These creations are meant to be seen and felt. They are the antithesis of the erasure many of our artists experience in our capitalistic society.
First and foremost, our GMS artists create for themselves. In a world obsessed with production, efficiency, and exploitation, it gives solace to experience art made to fulfill individual creative impulse instead of commodification. This exhibition asks “How can I make the most creative impact with the least amount of environmental impact?”
In the hands of our GMS artists, simple treads, notions, and trims are alchemized through countless hours of experimentation. Gold spun from rubbish. Discarded textiles are treated like jewels, meticulously assembled into garments and tapestries fit for royalty - creating a kingdom of one’s own.
Exhibition Dates: September 3 - November 1, 2026
Gallery Hours: Saturdays & Sundays 12-4pm or by appt
GMS Gallery: 1335 NW Kearney St. Portland, OR 97209
Funded in part by the Regional Arts & Culture Council and the Arts Access Fund.
OCTOBER is Portland TextileX Month! This year’s theme is Layers of Resilience. Info from PTM2026:
What sustains us through uncertainty and change? How do textiles and community carry memory, ingenuity, and our collective resilience through time? In this moment marked by societal strain, fraying, and a deep need for mending, we welcome you to join a collective dialogue about how textiles can embody adaptation, care, and connection.
This year’s festival invites us to consider how textiles carry and exchange knowledge while creating space for renewal. From material innovation to inherited knowledge, from personal expression to collective care, textile practices offer many expressions of resilience, resistance, creativity, and interdependence. What does it mean to build resilience together? What stories, acts of making, and relationships help sustain us?
This October, we welcome artists, makers, educators, businesses, designers, and communities to bring this theme to life through exhibitions, workshops, talks, and gatherings across Portland and extended regions. Join us as we showcase a wealth of diverse cultural and generational perspectives through our collective knowledge, experiences, and textile practices.
