Academy of Art University BFA Fashion Design student Elijah Morales is bringing work developed in the classroom into a broader Bay Area cultural conversation through A Mi Manera / My Own Way, currently on view at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles.
Morales’ selected work was created in his textile studio class at the School of Fashion. Its path from studio project to museum exhibition began through an ArtU connection. Marisela Gonzales Ginestra, a BFA Textile Design alumna who now works at Levi’s and served as a co-curator of the exhibition, encountered Morales’ work and encouraged him to submit it for consideration. His work was subsequently selected for inclusion.
On view through September 20, A Mi Manera explores the breadth and evolution of the Latino experience through textile art. The exhibition brings inherited practices including embroidery, weaving, quilting, and garment-making into conversation with contemporary approaches to fabric and material. Through these traditions, participating artists examine cultural memory, migration, family, labor, celebration, identity, and belonging.
For Morales, the exhibition places work developed during his Fashion Design education within a professional museum setting and alongside artists engaging with the wider Latino cultural community.
The connection between Morales and Gonzales Ginestra also demonstrates how an Art U education can continue well beyond graduation. Alumni working across the industry and cultural sector can become important points of connection for emerging designers, opening pathways between the classroom, professional practice, museums, and the creative communities of the Bay Area.
