HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT.- The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art presents "Hooking: Folk Art to Fiber Art," on view through October 5, 2003. Rug hooking is neither an old-time craft, nor European in origin. Instead, it was a craft popularized in 19th-century North America by thrifty and imaginative homemakers to bring color and comfort to bare floors. Today, hooking remains popular, with some practitioners elevating it from the underfoot and utilitarian to a wall-gracing art form.

Hooking: Folk Art to Fiber Art, features 21 rugs from the collections of the museum and from private lenders. The historical part of the exhibition features rugs collected by Wallace Nutting, small mats produced by Grenfell Labrador Industries, and two WPA rugs, among others. The contemporary portion showcases original work by nine fiber artists living in the Northeast: Gail Dufresne of Lambertville, New Jersey; Liz Alpert Fay of Sandy Hook, Conn.; Judy Fresk of Glastonbury, Conn.; Peg Irish of Waquoit, Mass.; Emily Robertson of Falmouth, Mass.; Olga Rothschild of Duxbury, Mass.; Trudi Shippenberg of Hartford; and Patty Yoder of Tinmouth, Vermont.

The exhibition is supported by the Costume & Textile Society of the Wadsworth Atheneum and the Mary Pope  Cheney Exhibition Fund.