Our History

The Thousand Islands Arts Center ~ Home of the Handweaving Museum began with a shared commitment to preserving the heritage of the Thousand Islands and passing traditional craft skills from one generation to the next.

Our roots reach back to the Thousand Islands Museum, established in Clayton in 1964. In 1965, its Board of Directors proposed adding a craft school to expand the museum’s educational offerings. Under the leadership of founding director Emily Post, a weaver and Grindstone Island resident, the school opened in 1966 with 44 students learning handweaving on purchased and borrowed looms.

The program quickly grew to include rug hooking, decorative arts, pottery, ceramics, and other crafts. As enrollment increased, the school outgrew its original quarters. In 1969, community supporters helped purchase the historic Antoine Tetrault house and carriage barn at 314 John Street, providing a lasting home for classrooms and creative exploration.

Alongside its educational programs, the school became a home for the study and preservation of handweaving. A donation of books, woven samples, and looms from influential weaver Berta Frey established the Berta Frey Memorial Library. Gifts from other twentieth-century weavers expanded the institution’s collections, preserving their work, research, and techniques for future generations.

In 1982, the school received its own provisional charter and became the Thousand Islands Craft School and Textile Museum. An Absolute Charter was granted by the New York State Board of Regents on April 27, 1990. In 1996, the institution adopted the name American Handweaving Museum & Thousand Islands Craft School to better identify its collecting focus. Today, as the Thousand Islands Arts Center ~ Home of the Handweaving Museum, we continue to unite craft education with the preservation and exhibition of American handweaving.

Our collection has grown to include more than 20,000 catalogued objects, including woven samples, clothing, hangings, color studies, manuscripts, study notebooks, looms, and tools. With a particular focus on the American handweaving revival of the 1920s through the 1970s, these resources document the artistry and knowledge of generations of weavers.

In 2026, our 60th anniversary year, we opened a new 13,000-square-foot Arts Center at 321 James Street. The new building triples our classroom space and includes expanded, accessible galleries, a dedicated weaving studio, a permanent handweaving gallery, and climate-controlled collections storage with library and research areas. Together with our historic John Street property and pottery studio, it creates more opportunities to learn, exhibit, research, and gather.

From a weaving class of 44 students to a thriving arts campus, our story continues through the artists, students, volunteers, donors, and neighbors who make this work possible. We remain dedicated to the spirit that inspired our founding: preserving artistic traditions while welcoming new ideas and bringing people together through creativity.

Please enjoy looking at historic photos below: