1960-68
Leonor Sobrino launches several social initiatives involving children (the Isla Negra School) and women (Mothers’ Centers).
Mar 1969
Seeking to support local families of rural workers and fishermen, Leonor Sobrino and the women of Isla Negra start creating the first embroideries. She was able to recognize the powerful creative potential inherent in the simplicity of their lives and their vivid imagination. Under her mentorship and direction, these women began embroidering vibrant scenes on flour sacks using needles and brightly colored wool, creating authentic, warm, and spontaneous images of their own world.
May 1969
Nemesio Antúnez, then Director of the National Museum of Fine Arts (MNBA), discovers and immediately appreciates the first embroideries and offers to exhibit them that same year. Pablo Neruda writes the catalog prologue.
Oct 1969
The first exhibition of the Bordadoras de Isla Negra opens in the Forestal Hall of the MNBA, featuring 38 works. It is a great success and receives notable reviews from Antonio Romera.
1970s-80s-90s
Over three decades, the Bordadoras de Isla Negra Embroiderers of Isla Negra) hold various exhibitions worldwide, including: El Quisco City Hall (Chile, 1970), The Institute of Contemporary Arts (London, 1972), the Galerie du Passeur and L’Espace Cardin (Paris, 1972), the XII Bienal de São Paulo (1973), the Metropolitan Museum of Arts (Miami, 1975), Providencia Cultural Institute (Chile, 1975), the Musée de l’Athenée (Gineva, 1978), the Fondation de Cachot de Vents (Neuchâtel, 1979), the Grand Palais (Paris, 1982), the Wellesley College Museum (Boston, 1985), the U.S. Department of State (Washington, D.C., 1991), the Oneiros Atelier (Tokyo, 1993), the Kyoto Sangyo Daigaku (Kyoto, 1994), the Kennedy Center for the Arts (Washington D.C., 1995), and the Ayala Museum (Manila, 1996).
1972
Creation of a collective embroidery piece, the Bordado Colectivo (Collective Embroidery), for the inauguration of the UNCTAD-III World Conference in Santiago. The work was installed as a large wall tapestry, measuring nearly 9m x 2.70m.
1981
Our non-profit cultural organization, the Isla Negra Foundation, is established in New York, dedicated to documenting, preserving, and promoting the work of the Bordadoras de Isla Negra. To maintain this legacy, its first action is to acquire 34 embroideries from the artists, creating the permanent collection, curated by Leonor Sobrino.
The women continue to embroider and sell their works directly in Isla Negra, operating a self-governed cooperative. The sale of their works is a great source of economic support for their families, homes, and their children’s education. They participate in various exhibitions of their work, which transcends the limits of their territory and inspires other communities to use embroidery as a medium of expression with their own unique language.
Oct 1999
Leonor Sobrino invites all the embroiderers to her home in Isla Negra to celebrate 30 years of working together. Through a long letter she reads on that occasion, she delivers her testimony of this history to the embroiderers, their daughters, and their granddaughters. The occasion is not a farewell but marks her retirement from direct work with the Bordadoras.
2000-2019
The influence of the previous period projects onto the local embroidery tradition, which continues through various styles, achieving recognition of its designation of origin.
2016
Under the umbrella of the Eladio Sobrino Foundation, created in 2010 to preserve and promote the historical, cultural, and environmental heritage of Isla Negra and strengthen its local identity, the collection undergoes restoration and preservation work by the team at the Archivo Central Andrés Bello (Andrés Bello Central Archive) of the University of Chile.
2017
Four embroideries from the collection participate in the exhibition Al hilo de Violeta (Following Violeta’s Thread), a showcase of various textile art collectives from across the country, held at the Visual Arts Hall of GAM, in Santiago, Chile.
2019
The exhibition Bordar el Desborde, Las Bordadoras de Isla Negra en el MNBA 1969-2019 (Embroidering the Overflow, The Bordadoras of Isla Negra at the MNBA 1969-2019) is exhibited, commemorating 50 years since the first embroidery exhibition in the Forestal Hall of the same museum. With delicate curatorial work and museography, the display includes 24 works from the collection, audiovisual accounts from the artists, images of the complete collection, a space to delve into their visual and auditory environment, the documentary “Lana Mágica” (Magic Wool) filmed in 1986, and a tribute to the Bordado Colectivo, created in early 1972 and disappeared in 1973.
Due to the success of this exhibition and the desire to show it in other regions, a tour in the South is immediately arranged, including Valdivia, Puerto Varas, Linares, Talca, and the Pinacoteca de Concepción (Art Gallery of the University of Concepción).
During the inauguration ceremony of the Bordar el Desborde exhibition, its director is informed of the “reappearance” of the Bordado Colectivo, the large-scale work created in 1972 for the UNCTAD III Building and disappeared in 1973 after the military coup. After 47 years missing, its reappearance is kept stealthily hidden for several months while various cultural institutions attempt to claim ownership of the work. During this time, the original artists were neither informed of its reappearance nor consulted about its possible destination. In time, it would be revealed how it vanished from its original location and was concealed for so many years. It would also be revealed when, how, and why the atrocity of cutting and dividing it into 4 parts, along with other illicit actions, was committed during the dark time this work endured for almost five decades.
2020
n January, February, and March of this year, the Bordar el Desborde exhibition is displayed at the Austral Cultural Center in Valdivia. Due to the pandemic, the tour in the other Southern cities scheduled for the following months is suspended.
Debido a la pandemia, se suspende la itinerancia en las otras ciudades del sur que continuaría en los meses siguientes.
2021
In October of this year, our book project, a testimony to the life and work of this collective of artists, begins with the goal of re-establishing their work in the country’s social, cultural, and artistic history.
2022
In April, the restored Bordado Colectivo can be seen again by the public at the Gabriela Mistral Cultural Center (GAM), the institution holding it under loan (comodato). Three embroideries from the collection are invited to the exhibition Fuera de norma (Outside the Norm) at the Las Condes Cultural Corporation in Santiago. Bordar el Desborde resumes its tour and reconnects with the public at the Pinacoteca (Art Gallery) of the University of Concepción, running from August 11th to September 11th.
Various talks are held by the research team of the book project, during a period of intense activity in Chile regarding textile art:
- A 50 años de la creación del Bordado Colectivo (50 Years Since the Creation of the Collective Embroidery), Luz Marmentini (Wool Festival 2022, September)
- Autoría y Creación artística (Authorship and Artistic Creation), Andrea Durán and Luz Marmentini (National Textile Conservation Committee, October)
- La Experiencia de la Curaduría (The Curatorial Experience), Alejandra Araya and Andrea Durán (Violeta Parra Museum, December)
At its annual meeting in Santiago (October 10th), the board of the Isla Negra Foundation agrees to support the exhibition schedule for Bordar el Desborde to tour Chile in 2023–2024 and then begin an international tour in 2024–2025. It also commits to developing the Bordadoras de Isla Negra Museum House project.
Leonor Sobrino passes away peacefully from natural causes at the age of 110 (October 16th). Founder and mentor of this artistic movement, this sensitive and generous woman curated the Isla Negra Foundation’s permanent collection, which today showcases the work of the Bordadoras de Isla Negra between 1969 and 1999.
The embroiderers and the Isla Negra community hold a simple but moving tribute in the Eladio Sobrino Square, where the path she walked every Tuesday for three decades to meet the women of the community at the Casa de las Lanas (House of Wools) is named Leonor’s Path (November 19th).
2023
The Bordar el Desborde exhibition is displayed at the Valparaíso Museum of Fine Arts, Baburizza Palace, from March 17th to June 11th. Over three months, it received a large number of visitors, reaching a total of 10,691 people. Organized visits are held for high school students and art history students from various local universities. The exhibition closes in Valparaíso with a guided tour led by one of the curators and the director of the show on Sunday, June 11th.
The exhibition continues in the V Region, at the Limache Arts and Crafts House of the ProCultura Foundation, open to the public from Monday to Friday, from June 17th to September 26th. Its inauguration is attended by a large presence of the community.
From October 21st to November 30th, Bordar el Desborde is exhibited to the Magallanes community in the Austral Hall of the Zona Austral in the city of Punta Arenas.
2023-2024
Still in Magallanes, the Bordar el Desborde exhibition is invited to participate in the Strait of Magellan Park Museum, where it is open to the public from December 2023 to May 2024. During these six months, the exhibition receives visitors from Chile and the world in this beautiful location on the shores of the Strait.
December 2023, January 2024: Initiated by the Foundation and its commitment to the Isla Negra community, and in collaboration with GAM, the exhibition El Bordado Colectivo vuelve a casa y sale al mundo (The Collective Embroidery returns home and goes out to the world) is held at the Neruda Isla Negra Museum House. Curated by Luz Marmentini, Josefina de la Maza, and Trinidad Moreno, this great Bordado Colectivo from 1972 returns to its place of origin and visits the Bordadoras de Isla Negra in their home, exhibited between December 7th, 2023, and January 8th, 2024. A tribute is paid to the artists in a simple and emotional inauguration ceremony, attended by them, their families, and the Isla Negra community.
During the panel discussion held at the closing ceremony of the exhibition, the embroiderers and the public are informed that the next destination for the Bordado Colectivo is the 2024 Venice Biennale, where it has been invited to participate in the main exhibition and will be on display to the public throughout 2024.
The Bordado Colectivo is displayed at the 60th Venice Biennale from April to October.
May 31st, 2024: At the Foundation’s request, a ceremony was held at the Neruda Isla Negra Museum House Isla Negra in recognition of the artists’ participation in the Venice Biennale. The event was attended by the Minister of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage, Carolina Arredondo. The gathering concluded with hot chocolate, offered by Nobel, the Neruda Isla Negra Museum House restaurant, in homage to the memorable hot chocolate offered by Leonor Sobrino during her celebrations with the embroiderers.
2025
With the Bordado Colectivo now back in Chile, the exhibition El Bordado Colectivo vuelve a casa y sale al mundo (the Collective Embroidery returns home and goes out to the world) is presented at the Baburizza Palace Museum of Fine Arts in Valparaíso, from January 10th to March 23rd. This marks the Foundation’s resumption of the tour for this exhibition in Valparaíso. Updated and readapted for the Baburizza museum’s subterranean hall, it was officially inaugurated on January 24th with the presence of some of the artists and embroiderers who traveled from Isla Negra. It was visited by over 12,000 people.
Between April and October 2025, by invitation from ProChile, the work of Gonzalo Puga Larraín, a Chilean designer and photographer, is displayed at the Chile Pavilion of the Osaka International Fair, Japan. He created a visual capsule with a subtle overview of objects, scenes, and trades that appear in the Bordado Colectivo. It was projected inside the Chile pavilion to bring Japanese audiences closer to Chilean rural customs.
On November 18th, our collaborator and art historian, Josefina de la Maza, presents the talk Las Bordadoras de Isla Negra en el horizonte de la UNCTAD lll (the Bordadoras of Isla Negra in the Horizon of UNCTAD III) in connection to Collectiove Embroidery at the Alberto Hurtado University.
In December 2025, after several years of research and team effort, the book project about the Bordadoras de Isla Negra is in the final period of editing, layout, and fundraising for its publication. We expect to present it in Isla Negra in April 2026.