Rag Rug Primer: An Introduction to Rag Rug Study Group

​An interactive, illustrated lecture that introduces Rag Rug Study Group and the art of textile renewal. 

​An interactive, illustrated lecture that introduces Rag Rug Study Group and the art of textile renewal. We’ll dig into themes of anonymity, collaboration, and co-authorship, and how they inform our approach to building a rag rug archive.

​Part art historical lecture, part architectural treatise, and part review of literature, this lecture introduces existing resources on rag rugs and Rag Rug Study Group’s effort to expand them.

​We’ll sift through this medium’s fragmentary archival trail, braiding together existing resources with our own ongoing research. Past contributors to our archive will bring textiles to share, providing a tactile counterpart to our slideshow presentation. 

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​Rag Rug Study Group

​Rag Rug Study Group (RRSG) is an event series and online archive that places reworked textiles in dialogue with contemporary art, design and architecture practice. We embrace the term ‘rag rug’ because rag rugs embody the creative practice of making do and using materials at hand. Our definition is expansive and our archive includes textiles in all techniques and for all functions that people share during our seasonal in-person show-and-tells. RRSG is a collaboration between artists and researchers Mariah Smith, who has a background in architecture, and Mae Colburn, whose background is in art history.