CLARKSVILLE, Tenn.- The Customs House Museum and the Clarksville/Montgomery County Arts and Heritage Development Council will present this April a national traveling exhibit of 12 works by fiber artists, including a piece by Clarksvillian Tamara Long.

Inspired by the last line of the poem “Sea Joy” by Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, “Oh—To live by the sea is my only wish,” these works range from traditional representations of lobster shacks, fishing boats, sea gulls and beach vacations to more abstract representations of sea, sky, shells and sand.

Since she lives in land-locked Tennessee, Long’s hooked rug is a collage of images from her vacations by the sea.

The exhibit, entitled Oh, To Live by the Sea, will go up in one of the newly created galleries in Customs House Museum’s lower level on March 23, and will be on display throughout the month of April. AHDC will host a reception Sunday afternoon, April 17, from 2 to 4 p.m., with a gallery talk at 2:30 p.m. by exhibit curator Lisanne Miller. Admission to the event is free and open to the public.

Tamara Long and other local hooked-rug artisans will offer demonstrations of this craft at the museum from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 9. Admission is free and open to the public as part of the museum’s Second Saturday Free Admission day.

Miller’s rugs have appeared in the Wool Street Journal, Rug Hooking Magazine, and Association of Traditional Hooking Artists publications as well as the most recent book by Jessie Turbayne, “Rug Hookers of the Deep South.” Her work is also featured in the new book, “Top 40 at 40.”

She is owner of P Is for Primitive and Peace, Love and Wool in Canton, Miss., and teaches rug-hooking techniques privately and in workshops across the country.

This traveling exhibit has been shown at venues such as John C Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, N.C.; Caraway Rug School in Sophia, N.C., Montgomery Bell State Park, the Jail House Rock Exhibit in Canton, Miss.; Mississippi Craftmen’s Guild in Ridgeland, Miss.; and Olde Cape Cod Rug School in Cape Cod, Mass.

Other artists whose work is included in the exhibit are Cheryl Bollenback, Golden, Colo.; Molly Colegrove, Newark, N.Y.; Jane Dunaway, Brandon, Miss.; Francine Even, Norwalk, Conn.; Evelyn Lawrence, Hallstead, Penn.; Roslyn Logsdon, Bethesda, Md.; Churchill McKinney, Fairfax, Va.; Judy Parsons, Springville, Ala.; Kathy Spellacy, York, Maine; Loretta Scena, Deer Park, N.Y.; Ali Strebel, Dayton, Ohio.