As visitors walk into the Blanton Museum of Art’s “Anni Albers: In Thread and On Paper” exhibit, in front of them sits the eight-harness weaving loom used by German weaver and printmaker Anni Albers. Outside the exhibit stands the “triangle table” — a gridded table featuring triangle pieces visitors can rearrange to understand Albers’ thought process while creating her pieces.

Fritz Horstman, curator for the exhibit and education director at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, said hands-on experiences are crucial to understanding art.

“We have knowledge in our hands that is separate from our eyes,” Horstman said. “Touching things and rearranging them … is different than just looking at how someone else did it. … You can understand (the process) much more deeply through hands-on experience.” 

The Blanton offers another way for visitors to get hands-on: a community art project where visitors create designs out of yarn on a collaborative weaving wall. In 2018, students Alyssa Leleux and Arohi Ranade created the proposal for “Mindful Weaving” for their intermediate sculpture class. The two worked with the Blanton for the class project to become something bigger — an installation at the museum. Now, “Mindful Weaving” returns to the Blanton until June 30.

“The hope is for ‘Mindful Weaving’ to never be put back in storage,” Leleux, now pursuing her masters in art education, said. “It’s a project that is for the city of Austin, for Austin community members. … My dream would be for it to go from one community group to the next, for longer periods of time.”

While not created to accompany “Anni Albers: In Thread and On Paper,” Maggie Fucile, museum educator for docents, families and schools at the Blanton said “Mindful Weaving” allows visitors to understand Anni Albers’s processes.

“A visitor can look at (Albers’ loom) and get a sense of how the weaving works, but you can’t touch it, you can’t engage with it,” Fucile said. “So, it’s exciting to go upstairs and weave for yourself. You’re not weaving on a big fancy loom, but you’re understanding … (what) you can create.”

Leleux said “Mindful Weaving” exists in seasons. When the weaving walls and looms fill up, they are documented through photographs and stripped to make room for more weavings. 

“I want (each season) to be saved as a moment of time,” Leleux said. “It will never be the same version (or season) again. People will create differently each time.”

While “Mindful Weaving” returns to the Blanton, “Anni Albers: In Thread and On Paper” marks the first time Albers’s work is featured in the galleries.

“I hope artists who see it will be inspired,” Horstman said. “I hope the general public will be moved to try things themselves — try things on the triangle table, try the ‘Mindful Weaving’ exhibition and apply these ideas everywhere in their lives.”