Join TSA for a day exploring American, European and Japanese fiber art and contemporary textiles at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The morning will begin with a behind-the-scenes tour of the Textile and Fashion Arts department guided by Curator, Lauren Whitley. There, TSA members will examine highlights from the Daphne Farago Collection. Comprised of more than 200 works of fiber art, the Farago collection represents more than fifty artists, including 20th century fiber art pioneers Ed Rossbach, Lenore Tawney, Sheila Hicks, John McQueen, Lia Cook, and Olga de Amaral. TCU attendees will also have the opportunity to view other acquisitions including works of contemporary Japanese fiber art recently gifted to the MFA by the Keiko Gallery.
After an informal box lunch, participants will enjoy a guided tour of the exhibition “Crafted: Objects in Flux” by Emily Zilber, the MFA’s Curator of Contemporary Decorative Arts. This exhibition presents a selection of international and cross-generational works by artists who are each interested in the crafted object and in marrying tradition to an expanded range of materials, ways of making, and modes of display. The works on view straddle the hazy boundaries between art, craft, and design – they are objects in flux – and represent recent work by artist such as Faig Ahmed, Sonya Clark, Pierre Fouche, Chung Im Kim, Grethe Sorensen, and TSA Board member Rowland Ricketts. http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/crafted
Participants will then head upstairs to the Peter and Daphne Farago Gallery, where they will see fiber art from the best of the MFA’s contemporary craft collection. On view in the recently-renovated Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art attendees will experience one of Sheila Hicks’s signature, monumental fiber installations from the late 1960s entitled “Bamian/Banyan.” Also on view will be recent work by the artist Sabrina Gschwandtner who weaves vintage films strips to create striking images that both comment on the textile industry, and visually resemble traditional quilts.
The day will finish with a look at mid-century modern textiles in the MFA’s American Wing, followed by free time for participants to explore the rest of the museum, including the temporary exhibition Made in the Americas, which includes several outstanding colonial-era textiles.
http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/made-in-the-americas
Expert Guides:
Lauren Whitley is Senior Curator in the David and Roberta Logie Department of Textile and Fashion Arts. She joined the staff of the MFA in 1992, and since then has curated more than 14 exhibition including “Threads on the Edge: Fiber Art from the Daphne Farago Collection,” “Ed Rossbach Fiber Art”, and more recently “Hippie Chic.” Lauren is currently co-curating an exhibition focused on fashion and technology called #techstyle that will open at the MFA in March 2016.
Emily Zilber is the Ronald L. and Anita C. Wornick Curator of Contemporary Decorative Arts. Zilber is responsible for the MFA’s vibrant program of contemporary decorative arts, including guiding acquisitions and developing a presence for this material in the Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art and throughout the Museum, and overseeing the Daphne and Peter Farago Gallery, a dedicated space for contemporary craft, design, and decorative arts.
Registration Details:
Registration opens July 30. Registration is limited to members for the first 2 weeks of registration and opens to non-members on August 15. Join at anytime to ensure your space in these popular programs.
Registration closes October 8
Member Rate: $125
Nonmember Rate: $175
Student and New Professional Member Rate: $45
3 spaces are reserved for students and new professionals at a subsidized rate. Members at the student and new professional level should email tsaweb@textilesociety.org to register.
One scholarship is available to a TSA Member – application deadline September 21
