In the midst of this pandemic crisis, the Guild is going online to virtual programs!
We are using Zoom to have meetings and lectures. Let us know who your favorite artists are. We may be able to bring them to town through Zoom!
Once you register on the form at the end of this page you will receive an email with an invitation to join the meeting. You can register for several programs at once.
Registration closes an hour before the event!
Hope to see you there!
Show and Share meeting
January 27, 2021 – 3PM – SS&CBreakout
February 8, 2021 – 7PM – SS&C
February 25, 2021 – 3PM – SS&CBreakout
March 3, 2021 – 7 PM – SS&C
March 25, 2021 – 3PM – SS&CBreakout
April 7, 2021 – 7PM – SS&C
April 27, 2021 – 3PM – SS&CBreakout and Annual Voting Meeting
May 3, 2021 – 7PM – SS&C
May 26, 2021 – 3PM – SS&CBreakout
Please register on the Registration Form.
For FGP members only.
We are having Zoom meetings to catch up with each other. Show, Share and Critique is no longer just an opportunity to show your work, but also a chance to see old friends, and meet new ones!
You may share your work, or your studio, or sit back and see what others are making. Tell us about your influences and inspirations as you continue to work in isolation. Work can be shown live, with your computer’s built in camera, or if you prefer, you may send images in advance to Laura Tabakman (web@fiberartspgh.org). If you desire advice and input, we are there to assist, or you can simply choose to show your work.
Our Show-Share-Critiques and Show-Share-Critique Breakout Sessions enable members to share their work in progress and “connect” with fellow guild members. At our “breakout sessions” members can select “an interest group” to have more intimate conversations about their work and processes.
This is a fun way to stay connected and get inspired!!
Please join us!
Show, Share and Critique Break Out Sessions
Questions or concerns, contact Sherri Roberts: sherripitt1@yahoo.com
Lecture with fiber artist Merill Comeau
February 16, 2021 – 1 PM EST
Please register on the Registration Form.
Free program for members – $5.- for non-members.
Merill Comeau is a mixed media artist, who creates installations, murals and garments examining narratives of repair and regeneration.
In addition to drawing and painting, Comeau deconstructs, reconstructs, and alters clothing and linens to disrupt, reorder, and build stories exploring common human concerns. Her use of repurposed materials evidences her concerns of environmental sustainability and the inequitable use of resources.
Merill is inspired by traditions of craft and the history of ‘women’s work.’ Her choices of materials and processes are informed by trauma and feminism; and employ worn fabrics of the domestic sphere and the mark making of stitch to convey narratives of mending and endurance.
She also reclaims cast offs through painting, printing, stenciling, printing and rusting, to create layers of enriched surface, to flesh out ideas and metaphors.
Merill Comeau’s work has been featured in exhibitions around the world, including most recently, Fiberart International ’19. She has also executed over thirty public projects resulting in individual and collaborative artworks, and is a popular speaker and workshop instructor.
Merill will teach a week-long challenge: “Art & Autobiography”, an online workshop on April 10–17, 2021. Registration is through Contemporary Craft. More information and details on the workshop will be available after Christmas.
Lecture with fiber artist Hannah Streefherk
March 16, 2021 – 11 AM EST
Registration for this program is not open yet.
Free program for members – $5.- for non-members.
Hannah Streefkerk (originally from The Netherlands but living in Sweden for the past 8 years) works consists of installations in situ, outside ore inside and embroidery works. In a lot of her works textiles and textile techniques, like crocheting and embroidery, play a significant role. The time consuming nature of this techniques, fits well to the main themes in her work; environmental issues and the nature of time. How do we look, ore not look at nature. As a contemporary Florence Nightingale, based in nature, Streefkerk goes into the forest to mend wounded trees and leaves, using yarn. She stitches together the torn bark of various trees and repairs the holes in fallen leaves on the forest’s floor.
Today the trend in our everyday lives is to ‘use and discard’, instead of taking time to repair or restore our belongings. We would rather buy a new pair of socks than try to stitch up the holes, and we would rather buy a new chair than try to fix the broken leg back on.
Hannah Streefkerk challenges this attitude, as she takes it upon herself to manually repair her natural surroundings, ore emphasizes details in nature with needle and thread. She creates a visual metaphor for our responsibility for taking better care of our environment.
Hannah was part of Fiberart International in 2010.
https://hannahstreefkerk.viewbook.com/
Lecture with Bruce Hoffman
April 22, 2021 – 3 PM EST
Registration for this program is not open yet.
Free program for members – $5.- for non-members.
Bruce Hoffman is Director of Gravers Lane Gallery in Philadelphia. He has been working in the field of studio crafts for more than three decades. During these years he has taught at Moore College of Art and Design, lectured and been a guest critic for many colleges, and has had the honor to jury shows for many fine museums, guilds, and art centers across the country.
Fiber and textile-centric art has been a main focus. Along with five friends, Bruce created and curated Fiber Philadelphia 2012. This four-month event showcased 61exhibits of fiber throughout the city. Bruce has a historical understanding of studio crafts as well as an appreciation of artists’ work and process. This guides his curatorial choices while enjoying the visceral delight of material, color, form, and texture.
Bruce is the juror for our membership exhibition Out of the Funk.
Deadline for entry: March 10, 2021
Lecture with Carolyn L. Mazloomi
May 13, 2021 – 3 PM EST
Registration for this program is not open yet.
Free program for members – $5.- for non-members.
Carolyn L. Mazloomi is an artist, author, historian, and curator acknowledged as being among the most influential African American quilt historians in the United States. Widely exhibited in the United States and internationally, her quilts have been included in five exhibitions at the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery. Her artwork can be found in numerous important museums and corporate collections, such as the Wadsworth Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, American Museum of Design, Bell Telephone, the Cleveland Clinic, and Exxon. She has appeared on television shows such as CBS Morning Show, Reading Rainbow, The Today Show, CNN, and has been the subject of several film documentaries. Dr. Mazloomi is one of six artist commissioned to create artwork for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center Museum.
In 1985 she founded the Women of Color Quilters Network, an international organization with a membership of 1700, which has been a major force in fostering the fiberart works of African American people. Through Dr. Mazloomi’s effort WCQN members have had their quilts presented in venues such as prominent museums and galleries, and in internationally traveled exhibitions. She is a frequent consultant for art exhibitions, authors, and historians.
Beijing, China was the setting for an international quilt exhibition curated by Dr. Mazloomi as part of the United Nations Conference for Women held in 1995. This exhibition resulted in the publication of the book Star Quilts (Streelekha Press, Bangalore, India) which she co-edited. She is also author of the book Spirits of the Cloth (Random House)given the “Best Non-Fiction Book of the Year” award by the American Library Association. Her books and exhibition tours include, Threads of Faith, Textural Rhythms: Quilting the Jazz Tradition (2007) and Quilting African American Women’s History Our Challenges, Creativity and Champions (2008), The Journey of Hope in America: Quilts Celebrating President Barack Obama (2009) and Quilting a Culture: African American Quilters of Ohio (2011), And Still We Rise: Race, Cultural and Visual Conversations (2014), Conscience of the Human Spirit: The Life of Nelson Mandela (2014) and Visioning Human Rights in the New Millennium: Quilting the World’s Conscience (2018), and Racism: In the Face of Hate We Resist (2020).
In 2003 Dr. Mazloomi was awarded the first Ohio Heritage Fellowship Award. Ohio Heritage Fellows are among the state’s living cultural treasures. Fellows embody the highest level of artistic achievement in their work, and the highest level of service in the teaching and other work they do in their communities to ensure that their artistic traditions stay strong.
In 2014 Dr. Mazloomi has given the National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Award, the highest award in the nation for traditional art. She was also inducted into the Quilters Hall of Fame Museum the same year.
Mazloomi has been involved in the economic development of women through the arts for over thirty years, and has been recognized by the International Labour Department in Geneva and the United Nations for her efforts.