Governor Bill and First Lady Crissy Haslam will honor Mexican needle worker Celia Garduño of Chattanooga with a 2017 Governor’s Arts Award.
Once a year, the Haslams honor Tennesseans who represent the best in arts and culture in the state with a Governor’s Arts Award, Tennessee’s highest honor in the arts.
The recipients will be acknowledged during a private ceremony in March 2017 at the Tennessee Residence.
Garduño has received widespread recognition for her brilliantly colored, delicately stitched textiles.
Born in Tierras Coloradas, Michoacán, Mexico, Garduño learned needlework from her mother, Elvira González. By nine, she was executing punto de cruz (cross stitch embroidery), crochet and tejido (needlepoint). By 15, Garduño was becoming proficient in deshilado (openwork).
Since arriving in Chattanooga in 1998, Garduño has continued to perfect her craft and share her artistic heritage with others. She lives with a daughter and grandchildren, spending much of her time creating textile pieces for family, friends and fellow parishioners.
Garduño deepens community and cultural ties between her church and its Hispanic parishioners through her art. Over the past ten years, she has hand sewn and embroidered Mexican regional costumes for children to wear on Our Lady of Guadalupe Feast Day, infusing the event with traditional artistry.
Vivid patterns of animals, saints and geometric designs abound in her handmade textiles. Her extensive knowledge of designs is evident in her vast array of completed works, which includes hundreds of embroidered bedspreads, blankets and pillowcases; appliqué blouses and skirts; cross stitched aprons and Mexican regional costumes; and delicate lacework doilies and tablecloths.
Garduño has taught workshops in Hispanic textile arts through Chattanooga’s NEA funded Latino Arts Project in 2012. Her work was selected for display at Crissy Haslam’s Christmas exhibition in 2015. Recently, her work was chosen for inclusion in “Spinning Yarn: Storytelling Through Southern Art,” a 2016 exhibition sponsored by the Crealde School of Art in Winter Park, Florida.
Garduño is the first Latino artist to receive a Tennessee Folklife Heritage Award.
Source: Tennessee Arts Commission