The National Scrollathon
Hickory Museum of Art reopens with a season of exhibitions
that honor the past while looking to the future.
Follow The Golden Thread through your new museum.
September 6, 2026 - January 31, 2027
1st Floor Hambrick Gallery
Hickory Museum of Art (HMA) represented the state of North Carolina in the National Scrollathon®, America's Cultural Project for the Semiquincentennial, celebrating the creativity, resilience, and connection that define the nation. The National Scrollathon® involved the participation of over 10,000 people from all 50 states and territories to create one single artwork, which was displayed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. from May 26 to June 29, 2026.
“Scrollathon believes in the creative capacity of every human being and the extraordinary power of community,” said artists Steven and William Ladd. “Through personal storytelling and shared creativity, we aim to honor the voices and experiences that shape communities across the country.”
All 200+ participants of our Scrollathon created an individual piece of scrolled fabric artwork that expressed their personal and unique story as well as a souvenir scroll to take with them as a keepsake. To capture each participant’s place in time and voice, photographic portraits and signatures of participants were captured. Videos of select participants sharing their stories became part of the larger exhibition and are featured in this exhibition and Scrollathon.com.
Hickory Museum of Art’s Scrollathon is made possible with generous support from Corning Foundation, Hambrick Family Foundation and Arts Culture Catawba. This project was supported by Arts Culture Catawba through the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Hickory Museum of Art is proud to debut our project that was created during a series of workshops held in November 2025, led by Scrollathon founders, contemporary artists and brothers Steven and William Ladd. During the North Carolina Scrollathon, over 200 participants met over the course of two days at HMA’s satellite museum that was located in Valley Hills Mall while our main location was closed for renovation. Each individual created a textile scroll which was added to this Collaborative Masterwork.
About Scrollathon and the Artists
Founded by artists Steven and William Ladd in 2006, Scrollathon is a multimedia, community-based art initiative uniting participants from across the country through storytelling and textile-based collaborative art. American Storytellers, launched in partnership with the Kennedy Center, captured and amplified these stories that led up to America’s 250th anniversary in 2026.
Steven and William Ladd are New York-based brothers and artists originally from St. Louis, MO who are known for vibrant, highly textural artwork that evokes childhood memories, working at the intersection of design, applied, and fine art. William discovered beading at 15 and Steven began making clothes while studying at Rockhurst University in Kansas City. After moving to Brooklyn to collaborate, their formal artistic partnership began in 2000 while creating accessories that attracted interest from the Louvre’s Musée des Arts Décoratifs, which included their work in a major exhibition. Selected for the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt’s Design Triennial in 2006, the Ladds’ artworks began representing people, places, and memories of their shared childhood, an evolving theme throughout their practice.