This weekend, a local museum is inviting community members for a hands-on workshop exploring cross-stitch as a practice of care, storytelling and creative expression.
The workshop, led by multidisciplinary visual artist and educator Arnée Martin, will take place Saturday, Feb. 28, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., offering a beginner-friendly space for participants to explore fiber arts while connecting with others.
Hosted by the African Museum, Arts & Cultural Center, under nonprofit African Economic Development Solutions, the event is part of ongoing efforts to create accessible programming that connects the community with local artists.
“We saw a need in the community,” Jalene Burka, AEDS’s director of advancement, communication and museum, said. “Artists need spaces like these to be able to engage with the community, and also the community needs spaces like these that tell the stories of the African diaspora and different cultures here in Minnesota.”
The museum first officially opened in August 2025, with a focus on uplifting African-immigrant-owned small businesses through AEDS. Through free exhibitions and programming, the space aims to showcase cultural storytelling with economic and creative opportunities.
The cross-stitching workshop will be held as part of the closing programming for, “In Our Presence,” a Black History Month group exhibition. It’s centered on reflection, memory and lived experience featuring the work of four African-American artists, Kay Heino, Rajine Williams, Arnée Martin and Jeannine Erickson, whose practices engage history, identity and collective care.
The workshop will be offered in a small cohort group to allow for hands-on learning and intentional interaction.
“We want to make sure that it’s accessible,” Lokho Kotile, museum program coordinator, said.
Participants will learn the basics of cross-stitching while creating their own designs and patterns. This was an effort to lower entry barriers for those interested in learning or practicing fiber arts.
Providing these opportunities goes further than education, but also about creating a platform for artists to share their work while being supported.
“Our job is to provide them all the tools necessary to just live in their art and create community,” Kotile said.
For Martin, who will lead the workshop, cross-stitching is both a personal and creative practice.
“I grew up cross-stitching and crocheting, and I’ve always loved art,” Martin said. “Getting back to cross stitch has really been like coming home.”
Although she has worked in different mediums like printmaking, Martin said photography can be difficult to access at times, especially analog photography. Fiber arts allowed her to reconnect with her artistic identity more authentically.
“Cross-stitch and crocheting have allowed me to still do what I love,” Martin said.
During the workshop, she hopes participants will not only learn a new skill but also see the endless creative possibilities within cross-stitching.
“The pattern or whatever you end up making, it doesn’t have to stay in the cross stitch world,” she said. She noted designs can translate across different art forms, and there’s no perfect design in art.
Fiber arts like cross-stitching involve repetitive and focused movement that can help with stress relief and mental clarity. For Martin, that aspect has been essential in her own life.
“Sometimes I go to my artwork angry, but by the end of it, it’s not that I’m not still angry or stressed, but I’ve been able to set it aside,” she said.
By bringing people together through workshops and exhibitions, the museum creates opportunities for those interested in sharing traditions that need to be explored and celebrated.
Burka added that spaces like this are important because they offer something that doesn’t quite exist elsewhere in the state.
“There’s not a space like this that is currently existing that tells the African immigrant story, the experience of African immigrant artists,” Burka said.
The workshop will take place Saturday, Feb. 28, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m at the African Museum, Arts & Cultural Center. The event is free and open to the public, with registration required in advance.
