The Fabric Workshop and Museum

Small cute and quirky museum spread across several floors. The exhibit space is small but the exhibits I saw were interesting and unique. Definitely some place to check out if you don't have hours to spend in one of the larger museums

Great quick museum! It's free (suggested donation) and very cool

I loved this! I love how the staff here is super welcoming, nice, and friendly. What really made me smile is the fact that this is a donation museum! The actual entry is free but you can give a donation to them, which I thought was amazing. The pieces here and wonderful and I love how you can add a little bit of your own creativity. The gift shop had some really cute stuff as well. Loved this experience.

This museum is amazing. It's so brilliant, modern and artistic. Well done to the staff and the artists. They are all are so helpful and friendly. All the exhibitis are one of a kind. They are so unique. Some exhibits are permanent but some other change within a few months. If you are interested in art, Fabric Workshop and Museum is a must go place. It's in the city centre. The entrance is free but you must reserve a spot online You are also welcomed to donate the amount of money you wish as an entrance fee.

My Museum and Food Bestie and I took a Girlcation to Philly. She had discovered this Museum. It was not at all what we were expecting. We went in May 2024. The exhibits and number of floors available for public viewing rotate. We had previously gone together to the Southeastern Quilt and Textile Museum in Carrollton. GA. I think we both thought this would be a very similar set of installations. It was very much not heirloom granny quilts. When we went every exhibit had a strong LGBTQIA + theme but was inclusive for any viewer. I mainly took photos of Jessica Campbell 's Heterodoxy which runs through June 2, 2024. There are 16 hand-tufted wall coverings. There is a sample block you can touch. There are several tables with chairs that continue the hand-tufted theme which displaying an array of images. This exhibit had a flyer with more information about the images selected by this Toronto Canadian artist. I wish the other exhibits had flyers of information to take home while digesting the images presented. The next floor available was interactive and a combination of objects and video by she/her artists Rose and John. There is a final safe space room that is well light and includes a closet of clothes for participants to try on different genders. Later on our trip I saw a young man with a "Protect Trans Lives" tee shirt. I mentioned the exhibit and Museum to him and his friends. They mentioned they were about to leave Philly but would come back to see this exhibit. The final exhibit made the least impact on me. Perhaps because I grew up with Filipino Healthcare Professionals for Family and Family Friends the embodiment of caregiver and being cared for didn't really bring me new insight. I do respect that the artist has a different view of the Culture of the Philippines and identifies as a more modern interpretation of Filapinx.

This must be one of my favorite museums. They have a great curator and I always enjoy the unique exhibits! This is contemporary art at its best. The museum is a bit small, but it is donation based and worth a visit, and it's in a central location too. If you do visit, make sure to stop by Tom's Dim Sum nearby for a yummy and great priced meal!

Loved it so much!! All the pieces were amazing. You can even go to the second floor and see the current art projects in the making and read about them. My favorite were the exhibits on the 8th floor working with sound.

Was very impressed by the Fabric museum! The museum isn't massive, similar to the Neon Museum further north, however the pieces here were fascinating and great to study. Similarly, the overall space and setup are great, with the gallery being split across different floors. For the low cost of entry, I'd definitely recommend a visit.

love a surprise museum. They normally are free, niche, and not busy and this one hit both marks. Saw a really intresting installation that sparked some good conversation and I wanted to bring the leaf cocoons home with me. For a random stop because I happened to park in front of the door this was a cute wrap up to an overnight stay in Philly

We parked in front of the museum to go to the market and didn't even notice it was a museum at first. With further inspection we decided to pop in and check it out. It was an interesting exhibit for sure. We really enjoyed the upstairs portion that allowed you to be the supporter or supportee (I forget the actual words) but it was a nice way to interact with the people we came with. Overall would I go out of my way to come here? No but I'm glad we randomly popped in.

I had no idea what to expect from this little museum but I was ASTOUNDED by how high quality and interactive the summer 2024 exhibits were. From caregiving whack-a-mole to a cabaret artist's multimedia gender journey, everything was thoughtful and gorgeously crafted - so much more than "fabric" arts!

The Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) is special. It's a small museum - but so specialized!! It's a contemporary art museum devoted to the creation and presentation of innovative works of art (especially works that experiment with new materials and new media). I visited a few weeks ago when I was a on a 2-day museum crawl through Philly, and I had such a great time. It's open Wednesday through Sunday and free to visit (they suggest a $5 donation). Advance registration is encouraged but not required; I didn't reserve ahead and it wasn't very busy when I visited on Saturday afternoon. The highlight of the visit for me was a certain amazing exhibition: "Jayson Musson: His History of Art." So amazing. If you love art, be sure to put FWM on your list of art museums to visit in Philly!

Small, interesting and pay-as-you wish, one can walk through and enjoy the gallery-like museum in less than a half hour. Take a couple of minutes to peruse the gift shop where I spotted a chair covered in fabric that I remembered from the Museum of Moving Images in Astoria. (The cashier confirmed my recollection!) Current exhibits are on the ground and top floors. An installation called 'Bitter Fruit' by exiled artist Ahmed Alsoudani, shows the sense of a refugee's estrangement through what's described as "grotesque and provocative imagery." Please bring your proof of covid vaccination card, as they do indeed check. When you leave, it's a short walk to the Reading Terminal Market where you can grab a bite of lunch.

What an unexpected entertaining delight. We stumbled into the Fabric Workshop and Museum, internationally acclaimed collaborator of artists worldwide creating new works, visionary exhibitions and a variety of public programs. At the time of our visit, exhibitions were available on only two floors - top and the first. Staff and literature were very helpful in explaining and assisting us with our questions. Anything and everything textile...weaving, hooking, sewing, stitching. Needless to say, the fabrics and exhibits were unusually creative, stunning and gorgeous...a little too little. Did I mention it is FREE.

Came here with my inlaws recently and I was kind of underwhelmed. I still don't really understand why this place is called the FABRIC Workshop and Museum when the exhibits have virtually no fabric! We started on the first floor, and there were a few framed pieces of fabric with some cool info about them - so far, so good. After that, though, things went downhill. The rest of the first floor had a large seating area where a video was being shown of some woman wearing a pumpkin on her head creating life out of another pumpkin headed creature (which I think ended up being the same woman, maybe). Sound weird? I kind of liked it but the video kept going and I wanted to see FABRIC-related content (at the FABRIC Workshop and Museum), so we journeyed up to the second floor. What awaited us? Another video with the same actress doing a weird monologue! This one was basically a series of statements like (and I'm making this one up): "I'm Pepsi and I'm Coke, and I'm the man who drops your coat." Just imagine stuff like that for ten minutes plus and you have a sense of the exhibit. there were also some animations of a depressed looking cartoon projected on the walls - maybe his pajamas were fabric-related, I guess? Finally, we moved onto the eighth floor, and I actually really liked the exhibit up there (cool grotesque sculptures that used injury to indicate cultural isolation, I think) but it once again had nothing to do with fabric. There's no entry fee, which is nice. Overall, I guess I would have given this place three stars if the name was more representative of the content, but we left feeling disappointed. One of our guests specifically chose to come here because she was interested in fabrics and really wanted to learn more about them, so obviously she was annoyed. Anyway, maybe come check it out if you're in the area, but prepare for lots of non-fabric content!

Definitely a must see exhibit space in Philly - it's free, which I love, but they just have such eclectic and exciting works of art. One of their most recent sets: Blood Moon and Bitter Fruit (Ahmed Alsoudani) were really out there, but I was totally into them both. Blood Moon was a beautiful exhibit asking what would happen if you created your own ideal partner - would they want you back though? All in black in white with fun videos on two floors, interesting monologues and quirky characters, I found this to be a fresh take on art. Bitter fruit was sort of an alien gross anatomy exploration of organs and shapes with vibrant colors. Tips/Takeaways: -Really cool to check out, free, could easily spent 1-1.5h here depending on the exhibit -COVID proof of vaccination required -Slow elevators/ideally unidirectional flow of traffic

Really cool spot. Completely free to get in. The website on the cell phone was a little challenging, so just rotate the calendar and select the dates you want to go. Then you will get to an option to select the number of tickets, and be able to go through the shopping cart with zero charge! A link to a ticket will be texted to you which you can then save to your wallet. When I went, there were three floors that were open. Other floors are available for tour by request.

Great experience!! Fun, thought provoking and just all around different place to check out.

The place was cute and quirky. The first, second, and eight floors are available for viewing at the time. Feel like you should check out the website before deciding when to visit - the current exhibition was not as engaging as I had hoped. It is a chill place to stop by and visit. While some of the exhibits include virtual portions and sound components, the place was relatively empty. Could see this as being a good place to go before catching a bus or flight or before visiting the reading terminal across the street. Very relaxed experience that would take about ~30 minutes to get through unless you sit down for all the video exhibits. They also have classes that I would recommend checking out on a free day. The employees and gift store were great!

I was walking by and the window display caught my eye. I walked in to discover a delightful shop with visually appealing trinkets, art, and gifts in every little corner of their gift shop. While I didn't go beyond the gift shop, I thoroughly enjoyed popping in. I'll definitely be back when I have more time to linger.

This was a cool museum to see in Philadelphia. Tickets were easy to reserve online and were feee with a suggested donation. There were 3 levels of exhibits to look at and each level had a staff person available to answer any questions. It took about an hour to get through. The art was really cool and engaging. It was something different than just looking at paintings.

I love museums and try to go to different ones wherever I can. Philly has some great ones. Medical oddities. Historical. Flags. Art. Sculpture. Yada yada. This weekend we had time to kill - 15 minutes to be exact - before a walking tour and I saw this was just two doors away from our meeting spot. While we didn't have time to go through the actual museum itself, I thought at least could support the museum by SHOPPING! I love the BlueQ line. They are racy, hilarious, and they use recyclable materials in a lot of their products. I was delighted to find one of their items that I needed - a coin purse. SOLD. I was back outside in a few minutes and I was happy to at least support the museum this way.

Came here to see Paper Dance from the Ally exhibit- my first performance art exhibit ever! I checked in downstairs and went in batches up a tiny elevator to be seated on wooden crates on the top floor. This performance didn't allow any photography or cell phones. The performance artist brought a giant brown roll of paper and told the story of growing up, love, letting go, and playfulness all through movement, facial expressions, and using the paper in creative ways. Gift shop on the first floor had beautiful crafts, interesting shoes, and other cool things. Will come again for the main museum exhibits!

I had a couple friends in town for the weekend and we made an effort to attend every museum nearby. Unfortunately one of the ones we wanted to go to was pretty far and my friends had to catch a flight a few hours after. We decided to go to the Frabric Workshop to see Suzanne Bocanegra: Poorly watched girls. This exhibit was really interesting and I really liked the work. The only thing was that there wasn't a lot to see because we were only allowed to see 3 floors, but it was donation based so not too much of an issue. If you are looking for something quick and trendy, I highly recommend visiting here to experience its unique concept.

The Fabric Workshop and Museum has been a part of Philadelphia's art scene for decades. They continue their long standing practice of inviting world renown artists including Kiki Smith, Ann Hamilton and William Wegman, to come and work collaboratively with there staff on new and ground breaking pieces. The recent exhibit/collaboration with Ursula von Rydingsvard was excellent. It included several of her large scale wooden pieces, some beautiful framed pieces and a gigantic leather jacket made from over 90 repurposed leather jackets. There is also a museum shop with small artworks, limited editions and great art books.

This is an exciting, vibrant place of which Philadelphians should be proud. Artists-in-residence have included Faith Ringgold and Kara Walker. The exhibits are unusual and thought-provoking. But despite the name, don't expect just clothing and quilts. Founded in 1977, the workshop supports artists working in new media. You are just as likely to find sound and video installations as you are works with woven fabrics. It's a one-of-a-kind organization. As a casual observer of art, I'll admit that a few installations were lost on me. Without proper cultural and personal context, I have trouble connecting to some works. But other times I was thrilled with artists pushing boundaries and creating pieces that moved me, upset me, made me laugh, or all of the above. I encourage everyone to check it out. For just a $5 suggested donation, what have you got to lose?

Cool, unique modern art gallery. The building is a residency for artists, especially in textiles/screen printing/etc. Walking past, I almost thought it was a retail store. It's free, so if you've got an hour to kill around Center City, stop in.

The Fabric Workshop and Museum is the perfect bite-sized stopping point for budget-conscious travelers interested in the modern art scene and thought-provoking exhibitions. It's also conveniently located near the Reading Terminal market and Chinatown, so it's a good area to checkout anyway for ambitious tourists. Sign their guest book at the door, then take your time pondering the exhibits with a tour guide who will lead you through the separate buildings and floors. Don't be shy about asking questions! The exhibitions are typically funded by public grants and private donations, which makes them free and open to the public.

I really like the Fabric Workshop and Museum. The exhibits change every few months so you never know what you will see here. Over the years we have witnessed a giant inflated fabric whale that took up an entire floor and we saw projected and animated images of people doing things that were all of a few inches tall. While they were really cool I was waiting for The Exorcist music to cue up. Make sure to say "hi" to Tracey in the Museum store. She is really nice!

I had no idea this gem existed. Visited today, just under the wire (exhibit closes tomorrow), to see the magnificent work of Ursula von Rydingsvard. The museum space was perfect for sculptures of such size & depth. I am beyond excited to discover this workshop & museum!

Gotta agree with Brizzle. Fantastic art, but outside of the giftshop is run in a very unfriendly manner. The old space was pretty awesome. It was a functioning workshop with a prestigious list of visiting artists. you could SEE the workshop, the work happening, and then go look at the work that has been produced in the past. The new workshop is a gorgeous building, but lacks the open spaces that was so key to the original and educational feel of the old workshop. The art-making happens on floors that the public has no access to. And yes, just to make sure you don't stray or touch or, well, enjoy your visit you have a personal escort to guide you through. Ours was digging his iPhone the whole time. Museums have recently been looking at having their work be more accessible to the public, to work more towards being welcoming and less "tsk tsk don't step outside the lines" so it's weird to see a museum go backwards on this. If I weren't in the arts and wanting to see the Nick Cave show so badly, I would NEVER have gone in there. It is the epitome of snobby-we-know-more-than-you attitude that has mostly died at art institutions, and for good reason. BUT, the art is pretty amazing, gift shop is nice, but over-priced (mostly, not all). Just seems the people who run it need to decide if they really want the public in there or not.

Often too weird for my taste, and doubt I'll return unless there's a very intriguing exhibit. Agree about gift shop staff.

This is my favorite museum EVER, and it's now FREE. The name is misleading, its not clothing and quilts. It's contemporary and interesting, but also brief. You can spend under an hour here, but leave with your mind delighted and expanded by art created in new materials. The entire thing is lead by a docent, so even if the current exhibition is a little to much what I like to call "artists personal shrine" then there's someone there to explain what they were thinking. They've had some of the best contemporary artists in the world including Nick Cave and Tristin Lowe, and they have a killer permanent collection. Make sure you check out the gift shop! It's filled with lovely and fun things.

What a strange little museum! I think it's more accurate to call this a gallery than a museum, as it only featured one artist. Either way, it was a great way to beat the heat when my partner and I were in town, and the small tour size was intimate and welcoming. Seems like they do great work with the local community too! Would recommend for anyone who likes contemporary work with a textile bent.

The Fabric Workshop has neither the "ease of use" of a museum / gallery nor the delightful idiosyncrasies of an open workshop. Instead, it's an awkward, poorly run gallery where visitors need to be escorted to the bathroom (don't worry, the guard waits outside while you poop), shepherded to disparate parts of the exhibits by grumbling docents, and generally exposed to a place that has a level of institutional anxiety that makes it really difficult to enjoy the work therein. If you're able to enjoy art in a tacitly hostile environment where you're made to feel like an intruder (or if you want to hang out in the only safe harbor in the place-ahem-the gift shop), give it a shot. If this sort of art viewing situation troubles you like it does me, spare yourself.

I have to agree with those who thought this place is poorly run. When I first walked in I thought maybe I was participating in some sort of performance art. The staff were cryptic and gave me weird looks. The security guard was friendly but the guide basically said nothing. I was thrown in with a group and we were led up and down to galleries. When she brought us back to the lobby I realized I hadn't been to two floors. "oh you were suppose to stay with the guide." we'll, she didn't tell me that! She didn't say anything!!!! The installations were really interesting however. I wish pieces from the permanent collection were on display tho. I had hoped to see Faith Ringgold's Tar Beach.

With the general recommendation from most yelpers I decided to check this museum out. First and foremost, I am not artistically inclined. Being so, I failed to fully appreciate the art displayed in this gallery. Though most of the fabrics shown were nicely done, I couldn't understand them at all. The two floor museum was a quick go through.

Our docent/guide was excellent for the large Richard Tuttle show which was also excellent. She was also super cool in the way you wish you could be friends with her, but she was also good at backing off when you wanted to contemplate the work alone and answered most of our questions knowledgeably. Thank you Tuttle for writing those poems to go along with your work. Can't wait to visit again.

Anything but soft and fuzzy, the Fabric Workshop and Museum's recent show New American Voices exhibit featured the astounding work of five national artists working with tractors, totems, mechanics, magnets and more. Of particular note, Ruben Ortiz-Torres elevates lowrider subculture with his explosive cranes (featured in video and print) while Bill Smith's "Decline of Eastern Songbirds" uses whistles and gas torches, amongst other media. Jaw-dropping work worth checking out...

Well, I can't say much about this place good or bad, because it was inexplicably CLOSED during its posted business hours. We checked online before we attempted to visit and we were sorely disappointed when we could not get in. Their website says to call for holiday closings, we tried calling, but no answer after eight rings left us still confused and sad. And I'm unsure why they would need to close for Halloween. I can't give it one star because it looks SO COOL through those windows, but the lack of communication in business hours fully deserves the revocation of three stars.

The Fabric Workshop has neither the "ease of use" of a museum / gallery nor the delightful idiosyncrasies of an open workshop. Instead, it's an awkward, poorly run gallery where visitors need to be escorted to the bathroom, shepherded to disparate parts of the exhibits by grumbling docents, and generally exposed to a place that has a level of institutional anxiety that makes it really difficult to enjoy the work therein. If you're able to enjoy art in an environment where you're made to feel like an intruder give it a shot. If this sort of art viewing situation troubles you like it does me, spare yourself.