20x20 Exhibition Houston 2024

Auction proceeds from the black-and-white drawings donated by artists will provide raw materials, workshops, technical and sales and marketing support to the women who have interpreted the drawings in the form of throw pillow covers. The proceeds will make possible the continuation of Honduras Threads which at its core seeks to continuously build dignity and self-respect for every one of our Honduran artisans.

Helping women in Honduras earn money for their families & communities.

“Your work is attacking a microcosm of problems worldwide – hunger, migration, education. I support you wholeheartedly,” Knight Kiplinger of the Kiplinger Letter.

“This is a program that works,” Sonia Nazario, Pulizer-prize winning author of Enrique’s Journey in a Fort worth Star-Telegram front-page article.

“It feels ‘good’ in today's world, to be able to help somewhere we can trust!” Julie Caldwell Tave, a recent donor.

Year after year, our Honduras Threads artisan co-workers must make impossible decisions: Choose either minimally nourishing food or critical medication. Pull a 10th grader out of school to pay for a 7th grader’s required books and uniforms. Work from home to parent toddlers or become a live-in maid which means being home just a few hours on Sundays. The impossible decisions the artisans face because they live below the poverty line in rural areas in the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
Since 2002, Honduras Threads has been seeking to mitigate those impossible decisions by strengthening the lives of our 28 co-workers, their families and communities with opportunities for work. Specifically, making pillow covers, table runners and other hand-crafted textiles for sale in Honduras and the U.S. Items so well made that they grace some of the finest homes and businesses.
To do so, we have taught a variety of technical and business skills, including sewing, embroidery, management, budgeting and computer skills. In the U.S., we have put structure and systems in place to sell the items the artisans produce.
The women artisans receive all proceeds of the items they make. The artisans initiated the decision to donate back 30% of the proceeds to Honduras Threads for raw materials, technical assistance and other aid. An unusual circumstance in the non-profit world!
The earnings and grants via our education fund allow Honduras Threads co-workers to add more protein to their diets, purchase uniforms and school supplies for their children, pay for tuition and transportation to schools for older children, purchase needed medication, especially for chronic diseases, and other life necessities.
Even more important, the work and the earnings lift dignity and self-respect to levels our co- workers have never had before. In the early years our co-workers were so quiet, shy, tentative. Not now. You see dignity in the way they voice their opinions, take on leadership roles, care for each other when one is sick and serve as role models for their children and their communities.

Challenge and Virtuosity
The exhibition is a collaborative event: Texas artists and Honduran artisans. Texas artists provided black and white drawings to create pillow covers. Honduran artisans interpreted the drawings with appliques and embroidery stitches. Artists were free to design in a 20” by 20” space. Artisans were free to choose the colors, appliqués, embroidery stitches for the pillow covers. Four different artisans created pillow cover versions for each drawing. The challenge: Artists could not communicate in any way whatsoever with the artisans. Artisans could not ask for guidance from the artists or anyone else.
The result: virtuosity.

MISSION
Honduras Threads’ mission is to strengthen the fabric of lives through work, pride and faith. We provide support to a social enterprise owned by 40 women in rural areas outside Tegucigalpa, enabling them to earn money in their own communities to help themselves and their families by making beautiful products in a safe environment.
Today, there are more than 40 women working in the social enterprise Mujeres Artesanas Arte y Creatividad in rural communities near Tegucigalpa, the capital city of Honduras. Honduras Threads provided initial training in embroidery technique and record keeping. Now the women train their own members.