Charlotte gets a joyful burst of color inside one of its classic galleries. Interventions: Weaving Joy, Woven Resistance, on view October 17, 2025 through October 1, 2027 at Mint Museum Randolph, places the vibrant fiber works of Katrina Sánchez among the museum’s Art of the Ancient Americas galleries, sparking a fresh dialogue between past and present.
The Mint’s Interventions initiative invites contemporary artists to respond to its permanent collection, and Sánchez answers with webs you can almost feel. Raised between two cultures — Panama at home and the southern United States outside — she weaves her Panamanian heritage into every piece, a tradition of handwork passed down from her mother and grandmother. Her family lovingly nicknamed her great-grandmother “the spider” because of her constant crocheting, and that spirit of making by hand fills this installation.
A graduate of UNC Charlotte with a BFA in Fiber who later developed her weaving during a residency at Goodyear Arts, Sánchez layers yarn, ribbons, beads, fish scales and corn in colors that recall Panama’s lush landscape and the brilliant Mola blouses, dresses and costumes of her ancestors. The result maps her daily life — memories, traditions and loved ones near and far — in bright, tactile form.
Want more? The museum lists a free bead-sculpture art kit day on March 4 and an Interventions Artist Talk with Sánchez on March 22, both at Randolph, at 2730 Randolph Road. It is a warm, hands-on celebration of family, heritage and the comfort of things made by hand — and it is on view for a good long while, so there is plenty of time to wander in and enjoy it.
Photo: The Mint Museum
