Michelle Bishop is the Founder and Executive Director of Harlem Needle Arts (HNA), an arts and cultural organization at the forefront of revolutionizing, preserving, and expanding the narrative of fiber, textile, design, and needle arts in the African Diaspora. Through exhibitions, education, technical support, economic development, and other tools, HNA creates platforms for the inclusion of the art forms on the stages of museums, galleries and publications.

After a successful career, fusing her IT and special events/fundraising expertise, Michelle formed HNA to represent and transform the narrative of textile art to respect history, tradition and culture but also represent the contemporary influences of the art forms to fuel the ever-expanding scope of the fiber constructionists. Focusing on the textile mediums of quilting, felting, knitting, crochet, batik, Adire, botanical print, weaving, spinning, embroidery, collage, illustration, beading, and fiber fusion, HNA is committed to sharing the histories and traditions from the African diaspora to foster growth amongst working artists, youth, and adults in the Harlem community and beyond.

Michelle’s holds a BBA in Management Information Systems from Pace University and a Certificate in Community E-Institute from Cornell University.

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