Cartographies in Thread: A Sewing Circle

Join us for a free needlepoint workshop, where you’ll transform a meaningful place into a textile map. Workshop limited to 18 participants.
About this Event

Map your history. Stitch your story. No experience required.

Join artist Maya Ciarrocchi for a guided needlepoint workshop where you’ll learn simple stitching techniques and explore how thread can be used to map memory and place. Maya will walk participants through drawing a small map or design and then translating it into color and stitched texture on a 4 x 4 inch canvas. This session is open to all skill levels.

The workshop is free to the public, and all materials are provided at no cost to you. Because we are limited to 18 seats, we kindly ask that you only register if you are 100% committed to attending. If your plans change, please cancel your registration at least 48 hours in advance so we can offer your seat to someone on our waiting list.

About the Artist

Maya Ciarrocchi was selected for the 2026 Zuckerman Institute Art in the Education Lab commission, awarded each year to a New York City artist for the creation of an original work that will invite and inspire community members to explore science through an artistic lens. Her piece, The Shape of Memory, will be on display in the Lee Bollinger Forum on the day of the event.

Maya is a Canadian American artist based in the Bronx. Her work grows out of her early training in dance, choreography, and theater design, where movement, images, and space all work together. These experiences continue to shape how she thinks about bodies, places, and how people move through the world.

Her practice spans textiles, video, mixed media, and movement‑based performance. She often looks at the connections between the natural environment and human-made spaces, exploring where they meet and where they break down. Drawing on scientific and ecological ideas, she creates artworks that map space, memory, and history.

Ciarrocchi frequently works with archives and historical materials, using them to imagine stories about the past, present, and future. Through drawing, stitching, performance, and video, she builds new visual worlds from traces of what has been lost.