Installation & Residence: How Long Does It Take to Hook a Rug? with Jennifer Ruth Hoyden

About Rug Hooking

Rug hooking, in North America and England, has its origins in the 19th century as a poverty craft where self-taught individuals, wanting to emulate the interior trends of their time, would source materials from the resources they had at hand to make floor coverings for their rooms (usually recycling worn out wool clothing, hence the English name, rag rugs), cutting strips of wool and pulling them through burlap backing with a hook to create loops that formed the rug’s pile. This practice led to imaginative designs with personal significance or inventive patterns that, in some cases, were sold for needed income, as well as a variety of successful cottage industries in small communities when people took note and began to value the folk art that was emerging from this practice. 

About the Installation

This artist-in-residence installation is an invitation to members of our TC community to observe a person practicing their craft; ask questions; be aware of a work growing slowly over time through choices, mistakes, and patience; and try rug hooking themselves through a community project to gather, learn, and explore making with others.  

About Me

A self-taught fiber artist/maker, I am drawn to craft-based artistic practices, such as rug hooking. I rug-hook in the same folk-art manner established in the 19th century – using it as an expressive, experimental, functional visual artform. I value the patient nature of the materials which can be interrupted, taken back up, put down, and returned to. While I work on a rug, I am connected to the materials, to my body through the action, and to my thoughts as they surface. Through these connections, I experience a sense of completeness.

 I typically work privately and slowly on my hooked rugs. When I do discuss my work, a common question is, “How long does it take to hook a rug?” I attempted to dissect my own answer to that question through a recent artistic action that I had on display in the Macy Art Gallery here at Teachers College this past Fall, where I worked on and documented the time it took to hook a rug, while reflecting on my engagement with, the interruptions, and my expectations of the work. By the end of the exhibition, I had worked 1,783 minutes (29 hours, and 43 minutes), I was not halfway done, and I had loved and valued every single second (all 106,980 of them). And I discovered that the answer to the question is: It takes as long as it takes. 

– Jennifer Ruth Hoyden, 2026 Myers Awardee

When: March 4 - April 29

Where: Offit Gallery

Opening, Conversation & Reception:  Makers at Teachers College, Thursday, March 12, 5-7pm (305 Russell & Offit)

Community Rug Hooking Workshops, Tuesdays, beginning March 24th, 12-1pm or 1:15-2:15pm (Offit)

Poster Image: Close Up of Fabric Scraps,

Courtesy of Jennifer Ruth Hoyden