Sauder Village Hosts North America’s Largest Annual Rug Hooking Event

Sauder Village will host its 30th annual Rug Hooking Week, August 12-15, filling Founder’s Hall with more than 400 handmade rugs and drawing thousands of visitors to Archbold.

Recognized as North America’s largest annual rug hooking event, Rug Hooking Week brings together fiber artists from around the world for four days of exhibits, classes and shopping. Visitors can see the work up close, meet the artists behind it and browse vendors selling fiber arts supplies and patterns available nowhere else.

“Thirty years ago, Rug Hooking Week started as a gathering of like minds,” said Lisanne Miller, who serves on the Rug Hooking Week Advisory Board. “It’s still a gathering of like minds, but now, Sauder Village is the place to go to see what’s coming next in rug hooking. You get to learn something new, you get to see something new, and you get to be with new people and expand your horizons. I believe in pushing the art form forward, and Rug Hooking Week is one of those events that pushes the art of rug hooking forward.”

A highlight of this year’s show is an exhibit curated by Miller titled Greenfield: An Original W.W. Kent Design, which features a never-before-seen pattern by architect and early rug hooker William Winthrop Kent. Miller — owner of W. Cushing & Co., a fiber arts store in Wells, Maine — found the pattern in her store between two filing cabinets and identified it as Kent’s original design for a hooked rug that was never published. Miller’s exhibit features 47 unique rugs based on that pattern, each made with different color palettes and in different sizes.

Other exhibit highlights this year include Early History of Rug Hooking, also curated by Miller as an homage to the evolution of the art form, and Celebration 36, an annual juried showcase curated by online publication We Like Rug Hooking, plus exhibits inspired by America’s semiquincentennial.

Throughout the week, students from all over the world will travel to Sauder Village to participate in the many classes taught by internationally recognized fiber artists, covering a range of topics, techniques and skill levels.

The exhibit is open Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission to the exhibit is included with regular Historic Village admission ($28 for adults, $22 for students ages 4–17, free for children 3 and under), which also gives guests access to Sauder Village's historic buildings, artisan shops and restaurants. Exhibit-only tickets are $15 for adults, $11 for students.

For more information, visit www.SauderVillage.org or call 1.800.590.9755.