Spun Gold Awards
Since 1999, Textile Center has honored artists and advocates for their lifetime dedication to fiber art through the Spun Gold Awards.
2025 Spun Gold Awards Luncheon
Thursday, November 13, 2025, 11:30 – 1:30 pm
Ticket sales have now ended.
This event is sponsored by The Pillars of Prospect Park, providing senior living in the heart of Prospect Park.
Congrats to our 2025 Spun Gold Award Honorees:
Mary Mortenson + Linda McShannock
Linda McShannock served for more than 25 years as a museum collections curator and textiles specialist at the Minnesota Historical Society. She holds a B.S. in Fashion Merchandising from the University of Minnesota and an M.A. in Textile History/Quilt Studies from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Linda served as Textile Center’s third president during its early years, and returned to the Board of Directors in 2018, serving until 2024.
Mary Mortenson is well-known for working with a wide variety of Shibori resist dyeing techniques, and is a popular artist in Textile Center’s artisan shop. “I love working with color to create one-of-a-kind wearable pieces, whether they are my original designs or pieces that I upcycle by adding dye, surface design, or other embellishments,” she said in a recent artist statement. In 2012, she was awarded a Jerome Project Grant for Emerging Fiber Artists through Textile Center, and over the years she has participated nationally in juried runway shows and has exhibited her work internationally.
Past Spun Gold Winners:
1999
Paul O’Connor – Weaver
Ellen Wells – Textile Art International Gallery Owner
Elsa Sreenivasam – Artist & Teacher
Margot Siegel – Fashion Reporter
2000
Helen Kelly – Quilter
LaVern Bell – Sewer & Teacher
Homa Amir-Fazli – Teacher
2001
Charlene Burningham – Beader, Weaver, Quilter & Teacher
2002
Gladys Raschka – Quilter
2003
Lila Nelson – Weaver
2004
Walter Nottingham – Teacher
Ruth Waukazo – Beader & Teacher
2005
Gini Corrick – Surface Design & Clothing Design
2006
LaVonne Horner – Quilter
Marliss Jensen – Master Dyer & Surface Design
Lotus Stack – MIA Textile Curator
Nancy MacKenzie – Artwear & 3D Sculpture
2007
Anna Smits – Weaver & Teacher
Wilma Gary – Quilter
Thelma Buckner – Quilter
2008
Donna Pauley – Needleworker
Joan Skalbeck – Dyer
Karen Searle – Knitter, Teacher & Publisher
2009
Norma Kenny – Quilter
Mary Temple – Weaver & Teacher
2010
Marj Ford Sethna – Weaver
2011
Susan Stein – Quilter
Diane Fitzgerald – Beader
2012
Paula Pfaff – Weaver
Margaret Miller – Weaver & Founding Textile Center Executive Director
2013
Becka Rahn – Surface Design & Teacher
2020
Carolyn Halliday – Knitter, Teacher, and founding member of Textile Center’s National Artist Advisory Council
Nancy Mambi – Textile Center Librarian
Mary Skoy – Weaver & Teacher
Ginny Smith – Owner of Ginny’s Fine Fabrics
2021
Carolyn L. Mazloomi – Historian, curator, author, lecturer, quilter, mentor, founder of Women of Color Quilters Network, and founding member of Textile Center’s National Artist Advisory Council
2024
Rose Allen – Quilter, Teaching Artist, and former Minnesota Quilters president
Jody Slocum & Mary Anne Wise – Founders, Cultural Cloth (Maiden Rock, WI) and Multicolores (Guatemala)