LEWISTON — More than 30 artists, all members of the Surface Design Association, will exhibit their works in the textile-focused exhibit “Altering Matters” at the Atrium Art Gallery.

Featured will be textile arts that are dyed, painted, stitched, knitted, woven, felted and printed. As a group, these artists and designers share what they make and how they think about what they make. As individual artists, they create multidisciplinary work that encompasses ancient as well as the most recent technologies.

An opening reception, free to the public, will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 10, at the gallery at the University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College, 51 Westminster St.

“This is the first group exhibition by Maine members of the Surface Design Association and we hope to have more in the future,” said exhibiting artist Katherine Harman Harding, who has been instrumental in organizing the show.

“This exhibition demonstrates that altering the ‘threads’ of our daily lives transforms the materials we use into the magical, the whimsical, the provocative and the beautifully practical,” Harding said.

Worldwide, the Surface Design Association, a nonprofit organization founded in 1977, has more than 4,000 members — a broad spectrum of textile practitioners including studio artists, industrial designers, educators, technicians, curators, gallery owners, interior designers, students and enthusiasts.

Other artists in the exhibition are Karen Anne Baldauski, Libby Barrett, Beth Helene Berman, Allison Cooke Brown, Elizabeth Busch, Mary Allen Chaisson, Katharine Cobey, Danny Evarts, Sallie Findlay, Kathleen Goddu, Sarah Haskell, Kate Henry, Christine Leith, Stephanie G. Levy, Denise Linet, Phyllis Harper Loney, Susan Mills, Jennifer Lee Morrow, Susan Colburn Motta, Karen Lee Munson, Susan Perrine, Shira Singer, Jill Snyder Wallace, Susan M. Wierzba, Susan Winn and Catherine Worthington.

The exhibit also includes the work of five poets with textile-related poems: Pam Bernard, Moira Linehan, Joan Mazza, Elizabeth Oakes and Sally Woolf-Wade.

Two Surface Design Association members will offer workshops at USM Lewiston-Auburn College. On Oct. 16, from 10 a.m to noon, Harding, of Osprey Cove Studio, will lead a two- hour workshop on dyeing silk scarves. She will guide participants through the steps from washing to dyeing to ironing a finished silk scarf. The workshop, “Dyeing Silk Scarves” will also include a brief history of dyes, silk and color as part of this hands-on workshop.

On Saturday, Oct. 23, from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Susan Perrine will provide instruction and materials to create a one-of-a-kind, 10-inch square felted image in her workshop, “Felted Landscapes.” The workshop includes a technique of stitching layers together between soluble paper, then immersing in water to dissolve the paper.

Both workshops are for adults and teens. Registration and fee information are available at www.usm.maine.edu/lac/art or by contacting Robyn Holman at 753-6554 or [email protected].

The exhibit will run through Nov. 30, concurrently with “New Mainers: Portraits of our Immigrant Neighbors,” a photography exhibition in the Hall Gallery.

Atrium Art Gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Friday; and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. For more information, call 753-6500 or visit www.usm.maine.edu/lac/art.