Tabitha Arnold

Tabitha Arnold makes labor-intensive art. Born and based in Chattanooga, she studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, then began to make tapestries using a rug-tufting tool as a makeshift embroidery needle. As a socialist and labor organizer, her work reflects coming of age during a new wave of unionization in the United States. Arnold’s tapestries borrow imagery from Bible Belt spirituality, social-realist public art movements, and ancient art motifs to create new historical artifacts from a working-class perspective. Her pieces interweave contemporary events with images of historical class struggle, with a special focus on the lesser-known history of labor organizing in the South.

Arnold’s work has been profiled in Jacobin, Hyperallergic, and Burnaway, and featured on print covers for Dissent Magazine since 2021. She has held solo exhibitions at the Worker's Art and Heritage Center in Hamilton, ON, and Swarthmore College in Philadelphia. Her work has been acquired by international collectors as well as the Boston Museum of Fine Art. In 2024, Arnold was awarded a Ford Foundation grant for her ongoing collaboration with the People's History of Chattanooga: a tapestry series depicting 100 years of labor history leading up to the United Auto Workers’ historic union victory at Volkswagen Chattanooga. 

Artist Statement

I make labor-intensive art. My tapestry work reflects my life experience as a service industry worker and socialist organizer coming of age during a new wave of unionization efforts in the United States. I was born in Tennessee, and I borrow imagery and language from the Bible Belt spirituality I grew up immersed in. I combine this with inspiration from social-realist public art movements and ancient art motifs to create new historical artifacts from a working-class perspective. My pieces interweave contemporary political events with stories from historical class struggle, with a special focus on the lesser-known history of labor organizing in the South.