Introduction to Memory Brooches: What do I Carry?

Sunday, August 30 | 1-4 PM
FREE

This workshop has been developed exclusively for Immigrant, Refugee, and Newcomer participants, with thanks to Toronto Arts Council Funding via their Newcomer and Refugee Arts Engagement program.

Spend your Sunday afternoon learning how to create small textile brooch using reclaimed fabrics, embroidery thread, beads, buttons and other materials available.

Memory brooches are handmade textile objects that often have been created to remember people, places, traditions, and important moments. The brooch can represent a memory from home, a person, a value, a dream, a place, or something participants want to bring into their future. This can be something meaningful that you wish to carry with you.

Participants will learn how to combine fabric, embroidery, and embellishment techniques to transform simple reclaimed materials into a small wearable artwork. The finished pieces can be worn as personal objects.

This is a free workshop for participants who identify as a member of the Immigrant, Refugee, and Newcomer community.

For any accessibility needs, please email Marium Durrani (mdurrani@textilemuseum.ca).

Type: Program

Date: Aug 30, 2026, 1pm - Aug 30, 2026, 4pm

This workshop is part of the Museum’s workshop series: Liminal Threads. In this workshop series, the Museum aims to create space for newcomers, refugees, and newcomers, cultivating a space where they can bridge the divide of settling in Canada. Taught by local Immigrant, Refugee, and Newcomer artists, participants are taught new modes of sustainable thinking, textile making techniques, and creating new community. We would like to thank the Toronto Arts Council Strategic Funding: Newcomer and Refugee Arts Engagement, for funding this program.

Facilitator Bio:

Andrea Idrobo is an Ecuadorian-Chilean visual and textile artist based in Toronto. Working with embroidery, textiles, and repurposed materials, she explores memory and identity through making. Inspired by everyday stories and textile traditions, her work reflects on the ways handmade objects carry memory and connect us to one another.

Andrea is interested in how textiles create spaces for conversation and learning. Her work is shaped by cultural heritage and the quiet exchanges that happen when people make things together.

Alongside her independent practice, Andrea works as an art assistant and facilitates community workshops that invite people of all backgrounds to experiment, learn new skills, and create together. She is also an active member of Watermelon Seeds Collective and Tatreez Circle, where she helps organize collaborative textile projects, workshops, and community initiatives.