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Behind the Scenes at Fiberart International

March 12, 2018

FromTheNumberOneTrain-Plotner-Quilt national

Did you know that Fiberart International has been happening for over 50 years? It began as Stitchery International and evolved to include all fiber-related mediums. Twenty-three exhibitions later, FI has been pivotal in exhibiting innovative work from around the world. Do you wonder just what it takes to produce an exhibition of this stature?
You know the old adage, “Many hands make light work.” In the case of Fiberart International, it’s many hands, feet, arms, legs, eyes, ears, brains!

SYNERGY: Fiberart International 2019 is off and running!

January 21, 2018

by Mary Towner A few weeks ago, the Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh held its kickoff meeting for Fiberart International 2019. Setting the tone with her signature enthusiasm, FI Director Rae Gold presented with lots of information and more than an armload of volunteer sign-up clipboards. Much of the FI2019 groundwork has been laid. We have …

FI16 inspection highlights… and register NOW for the Forum!

November 7, 2023April 12, 2016

Opening weekend for Fiberart International 2016 is steaming toward us like a freight train — packed with art, anticipation, and festivities! Lots of last minute preparations behind the scenes before the gala opening on May 6, just weeks away! A favorite part of every FI is inspection week-end when one of our jurors returns to examine each piece live for the first time.

Lucky Guild volunteers make up the white gloved crew who carry out this essential operation. We open each crate with special care, document the condition and note how each piece was packed. After inspection the work is re-packed for storage until installation. Not only is this an opportunity to check out the detail and incredible craftsmanship of your favorite artworks but also to engage with the juror about all things fiberart. Even if you’ve seen the images a dozen times, as some volunteers have — the scale, texture, and power of each piece is a joy to experience firsthand.

The Re/New Festival September 9 – October 9, 2016

March 8, 2023February 16, 2016

Big news! Downtown Pittsburgh will be jumping this September, with the opening of the first Re/New Festival featuring the North American premiere of DRAP-Art, the International Festival of Recycling Art, held annually in Barcelona, Spain. According to their website “Drap-Art has established itself in recent years as a showcase of the trends in art that use objets trouvés and discarded materials as a resource. It has become a platform for emerging artists, designers, craftsmen, and other creative professionals from Europe and elsewhere who seek trash as their raw materials. From these premises, it functions as a campaign to make people aware of the fact that we must consume more responsibly and respect the theme of the three Rs (reduce, reuse and recycle).”

Clean out your studio–it’s potluck time!

November 7, 2023January 27, 2016

The holidays are over, it’s cold, snowy, and gray — so you know it’s gotta be time for our potluck fundraiser at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts! This annual event is one of our most cherished traditions. Just when the doldrums of winter start to settle in, we gather together. We clean out our studios, …

Help make FI16 the best Fiberart International ever!

January 19, 2016

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard about Fiberart International (FI), the amazing show our guild produces every three years. The exhibition is so big, it takes up two simultaneous venues: the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and Society for Contemporary Craft. But what you may not know is that we are famous (yes we are!) for hosting a great opening week-end where FI artists from all over the world gather to meet and talk about our beloved medium – fiber art. And the best part is our members are deep in the thick of it all. We all have the awesome opportunity to shmooze, help out, and participate as much as we want. On Sunday January 10th volunteer guild members old and new gathered together to learn all about FI2016.

Happy 2016! Time to PoP, Open FI16 and Meet the Steel City Fiber Collective!

October 18, 2023January 5, 2016

Happy New Year! There is so much to look forward to in 2016. FGP’s public art installation PoP des Fleurs ,designed by Rae Gold, opens at the Carnegie Library main branch in February and continues to PoP throughout the library system leading up to our critically acclaimed Fiberart International 2016 opening at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and the Society for Contemporary Craft in May.

But we are not the only group with big plans for the new year. Recently FGP President Susan Swarthout and I met with the newly formed Steel City Fiber Collective. Anna Sylvester, Becca Kreiger, Cheryl Koester and Nora Swisher met through a local Stitch n’ Bitch group and together they saw a need for a warm and inviting place where fiber artists and crafters could meet and share. Members would join for a fee and have access to space, tools and equipment that is often too expensive or cumbersome to buy as an individual; think Tech shop but devoted to all things fiber and is affordable.

Akiko Kotani and Risë Nagin: Group A “Works”

December 28, 2015

Black on White #1 2004 Akiko Kotani — *Black on White #1* 2004 Akiko Kotani

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to get out of the studio during the dark and dreary days of winter to see more art. There is so much going on in the region, beginning in our own back yard: the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. Now through January 17th you can see works by two of our most accomplished members, Akiko Kotani and Risë Nagin, who were selected to participate in “Works,” juried by Todd Keyser. Group A is a small invitation-only guild which “…provides exhibition opportunities for its members and fosters an active dialogue about visual art concepts and practices.”

Akiko Kotani’s series Black on White is breathtaking in its simplicity. She uses black silk thread on hand woven white silk canvas to create a bold line that references organic forms yet has a contemporary graphic appeal. In the first work of this series she creates the feeling of movement by working predominantly with one shape as it appears to replicate itself across the canvas.

KtB and Allegheny County Council

November 3, 2023December 8, 2015

Knit the Bridge was in the Post Gazette once again — but we’re not so happy this time. Diana Nelson Jones reported on the vote before Allegheny County Council to remove the never enacted 2% set-aside for public art. In the article, Amie Downs, official spokesperson for County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, cited KtB as an example of why the set-aside was unnecessary with an ambiguous description of the type of support the county provided to the project. “We have focused our time and efforts on cataloging and maintaining existing public art, while encouraging and supporting public art in the community. The Knit the Bridge installation is just one such example.”

FGP President Susan Swarthout contacted the KtB team concerned that using it as an example sent the wrong message to the arts community and the entire region. The KtB team agreed and on Tuesday November 17, Knit the Bridge lead artist and co-director, Amanda Gross, co-director Penny Mateer and current and former Presidents of the Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh Susan Swarthout and Sherri Roberts all provided comment at the County Council’s bimonthly November meeting. FGP recommended that County Council vote no to the elimination of the 2% set aside and yes to the creation of the arts board.

Sherri Roberts shares her blogpost on Creativity and Productivity

March 8, 2023November 30, 2015

After a crazy few weeks I needed a jump start back into the blog scene. Flipping through images on Facebook I caught a glimpse of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz and her words echoed “there’s no place like home.” So I turned to our guild for some help. Did you know that some of our members are not just amazing artists and makers but writers as well? Well Sherri Roberts is one of them and with just one click I was immersed in her blog Galil Threadworks and got just what I needed. We asked Sherri if we could share this gem of a post and she graciously agreed, just in case you need to get your groove on.

Do Something! by Sherri Roberts

After recently tweaking the “elevator-speech” description of my artwork, I was able to identify the latest bug in my brain; how to keep creativity and its fraternal twin, productivity, flowing.