Textile Society Symposium Recap

edited to add: I think I've fixed all the links. Let me know if any are still not working. Typepad seems to have made some changes - one more reason that I'm moving the blog to Wordpress soon. Sorry about that!

I really enjoyed the Textile Society symposium at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln last week. First, some highlights:

• An excellent keynote by Sheila Kennedy, an MIT professor in the school of architecture and "a pioneer in integrating technology and design." This talk was a reminder that textiles are both art and science, and that we can use them to improve people's lives -- not just by preserving traditional craft but also by innovating and designing new textile technologies, by thinking big, by looking toward "new cloth" and the future. I especially liked Kennedy's description of the Portable Light project. And the moment where she talked about indigenous peoples wanting to create their own handwoven sacred carriers for these 21st-century light sources brought it all together. The message that we need to be skilled both in digital technologies and in making things by hand was timely.
• Another good keynote on natural dyes by Dominique Cardon, who is organizing next year's International Symposium and Exhibition on Natural Dyes, to be held in France. This talk, too, raised questions exploring the science of natural dyeing on a large scale, as well as its history and its appeal and challenges for the small-scale dyer. The event next year sounds pretty great.
• A fantastic session on "Slow Art and Textile Practice" by Rowland Ricketts, artist, teacher, and indigo farmer, Kyoung Ae Cho, who makes beautiful stitched pieces, and Janice Lessman-Moss, a weaver. Each artist brought a story and a sensibility to the presentation that gave a beautiful context to their work. I've written about Rowland Ricketts before but the other artists were new to me. And I got to meet and talk with Rowland, and he has a lot to say about indigo and about the textile art community. It was a great pleasure to talk with him and hear him speak. A few years ago I gave a lot of thought to putting together an exhibition on art and agriculture, integrating my experiences in the organic foods world and in art and textiles. Talking with him re-ignited that idea for me.
• Janice Arnold gave a very beautiful presentation on the nomadic life and her work in felt, some of which was included in the Cooper Union exhibition last year. She was lovely, and seemed to have put a lot of thought into her presentation. The work and the story of her process is astounding and she truly seems to be called to express the idea of being a nomad in modern times.
• There was a good presentation on Shipibo Indian textiles, which I've posted about a few times, and fascinating talks on other cultural and anthropological aspects of textiles. I know not everybody goes for this stuff, but I love it.

In general, I loved the high level of scholarship, cultural context, and international scope of this symposium. If these things appeal to you, I recommend joining The Textile Society and attending the next symposium, scheduled for Washington, D.C., in 2012. By relocating the symposium each time, different locales get to shine, and Lincoln did very well. My Colorado College classmate Wendy Weiss had a lot to do with organizing this symposium (she teaches at the University of Nebraska) and she did an excellent job. There were many exhibitions, from local galleries to the beautiful Sheldon Museum of Art and the International Quilt Study Center; good restaurants nearby; beautiful autumn weather and the friendliness of the Midwest. There was a small but excellent marketplace; I bought Laura Foster Nicholson's ribbons and had the pleasure of talking with her, and I also saw my friends from Goodweave there. I had a very interesting conversation with Leesa Hubbell, the digital news editor for the Surface Design Association. And a big bonus for me: while in Lincoln, I got to see my dear brother, my lovely sister-in-law, and my beloved niece and nephews.

There was some minor room for improvement at the conference, generally speakers who didn't seem well prepared or comfortable presenting to a group, and too many concurrent sessions, forcing difficult choices. Because there are such strong relationships between food and fiber, I'd love to see the presence of good local and organic food at events like this (I know this is a cost issue and a hotel contract issue, but it can be done). But all in all it was a terrific event, and for me there was more substance than at some other textile conferences and trade shows that I've been to.

I left there with a lot to think about for my work as well as my personal direction with textiles and the future of Slow Cloth as an entity and as an idea. One thing that always comes up for me is the lack of diversity -- in age and gender, in particular -- in the textile community. Young people are coming in, but too often as a marketing target, as consumers of craft products. And men are mostly there if they come from other countries, by and large, or in a celebrity role to audiences of women, so it often seems a little out of balance.

The question is, I suppose, do we want it to be different? I think we do, because diversity is a core concept of sustainability. And because any group with 99% one gender or age group all the time tends to magnify  any flaws or weaknesses in communication style and interaction of that gender or age group. Anyway, that's a big topic for another time. I think the energy of the textile community would change if it were more diverse in any number of ways, but maybe I'm just projecting my own discomfort with groups of all kinds.

The image above is Torn Notebook, a Claes Oldenburg sculpture in the sculpture garden at the Sheldon Museum of Art in Lincoln.

Comments

[Dee Mallon]

thanks for the review -- I look forward to following some of the links.

as a 'lapsed feminist' I want to point out the obvious -- if men quilted in the numbers that women do, it would ALREADY be held out as high art (and not merely emerging or controversially so).

I call the members of one of my circles(I am not excluded here): The Fat White Hairs. I guess that says a lot about the absence of diversity.

[Heather]

I visited the library recently and saw the latest issue of Handwoven. Congrats on receiving such unconditional recognition for your concept of Slow Cloth!

[Martine]

on diversity: a few weeks ago i had the pleasure of working with a textilegroup in Italy. There was this 25 year old guy from NY who flew all the way to Europe to join. He was a great felter and knew all about natural dyes. There were people from all over the world and most of them where young.
XXXm

[Sarah]

Just wanted to point out that the Fashioning Felt show was at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, not the Cooper Union.

[Heather]

Thank you for sharing your experience at the symposium. It sounds fascinating.
Re: diversity. I have attended quite a few Maiwa symposia and workshops. The participants are mostly well-to-do middle-aged white women with a few younger women and the very occasional man mixed in. I do think cost and available leisure time are factors in the lack of diversity. The irony is most apparent when the speaker or workshop leader is of an indigenous group faced with a near extinction of their culture or textile tradition - and it seems that these privileged North American women are among the last receivers of their knowledge.

[glennis]

interesting to hear all the goings on at the symposium. thanks for the write-up.
a couple of things i wondered after reading it- how many attended and what was the cost to attend? if you flew in and had hotel costs to cover in addition to membership and registration fees, this alone cuts down on the diversity of those able to attend something like this. simply something most 20-30 year old's can't manage financially let alone the time away from work and/or family.
yes, diversity is a great concern in terms of sustaining any group. this same concern exists in the quilt and sewing markets. just look around at any quilt or sewing show. almost exclusively women, mostly over 40 with the majority being over 50. how to change this? i really don't know, but something tells me it has to start with education- and presenting the possibilities of careers in the arts. treating the arts as a profession rather than a hobby.
i like the idea of connecting the arts to science and agriculture.
all of this takes enormous amounts of time, patience, and persistence...
i've got to go now- i hear some shibori ribbon calling me back to my reality of sustainability!
glad you were able to go and report back and that it has perhaps sparked some possible directions for you.

[KathleenC]

Your review is the second very positive review of the conference I've read. Sounds like a very good job was done by the organizers and presenters.
And hoorah for Lincoln... my MFA alma mater!
Sometimes the challenge to increasing diversity is not changing the internal but the external. I think this is partly the challenge in textiles.
I work in theatre and dance education. It'd be great to have more male students, in dance especially. We would welcome them gladly! But there is an external perception... a societal pressure... that keeps them from considering it an acceptable vocation/avocation.
It's sort of a circular dilemma. The more diversity in an area the more a diverse population is comfortable joining in. The less diverse... the less joining.
How to break that cycle?

[jude]

I think the diversity of a group is often controlled by the group itself, which forms an identity through the initial members. I think it is quite difficult to change without changing the culture that surrounds it. Also, sadly, the youth of today has been forced into extreme "make a living mode" due to the extreme financial stress this current world situation offers them. Thanks for the review.

[kaite]

Wow, thankyou for the Textile Symposium Society recap, so much to follow thru on and so many ideas to slowly absorb. Unfortunately some of the links didn't work tho. k.