Weavers Guild of Greater Baltimore

Susan E. Picinich, Dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication, has been working hard on her loom this spring. As a member of the Weavers Guild of Greater Baltimore, Dean Picinich will have pieces in the Anniversary show this summer.

My fiber art will be on display in the Weavers Guild of Greater Baltimore 70th Anniversary Show from July 5 to August 31, 2019.  There is an opening reception on July 11 from 6:30-8:00 p.m. with demonstrations of weaving and spinning.  The show is at the Baltimore County Arts Guild, 1101 Maiden Choice Lane in Baltimore 21229 www.bcartsguild.org

As a costume designer, the fiber arts have always been part of my world through sewing, dyeing, surface embellishment, and clothing related crafts.  In graduate school at the University of Michigan I took Weaving and Fabric Design with Sherri Smith.  I continued learning to weave as a new Assistant Professor at Western Illinois University with Art Professor Jo Sanders.  But my fiber work took a backseat as my academic and free-lance design work intensified.  Now I am working as an artist again, anticipating my new faculty role.  In the past year I joined the weaver’s guild, took workshops, and made Shadow Weave towels to enter in the 70th Anniversary Challenge Heirlooms category.  Now that I’m back in the swing of weaving, my next project is a series of sculptural bodices or corsets representing female archetypes.  The pieces will be woven of rags and shaped on the loom using the pulled-warp process.

 

The Monument Quilt

After 6 years of organizing, and after 49 displays in 33 cities across the US and Mexico, the culminating display of the Monument Quilt is set for May 31 – June 2, 2019, on the National Mall in Washington, DC, between 12th and 14th St. This will be the only time that the quilt will be viewed in its entirety.

The Monument Quilt, a project of Baltimore based FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture, is a collection of over 3,000 stories by survivors of sexual and intimate partner violence and our allies, written, painted, and stitched onto red fabric. Our stories literally blanket highly public, outdoor places to create and demand space to heal, and resist a singular narrative about sexual violence.  Learn more: themonumentquilt.org

To follow the event add FORCE on Facebook or Instagram!

Monument Quilt, 2019

The NAMES Project and the Monument Quilt: Public Rituals For Grief

Dr. Kalima Young

Hosted by the The Textile Museum | Main Stage at 10:30am-12pm | Featuring Dr. Kalima Young and Julie Rhoad, President and CEO of the Names Project Foundation

On Saturday, June 1, 2019 Towson University faculty member from the Department of Electronic Media and Film, Dr. Kalima Young, will head to the main stage on the National Mall. Dr. Kalima Young and the President and CEO of the NAMES Project Foundation, Julie Rhoad, will discuss this history and current presence of the NAMES Project, the current state of AIDS activism, and the ways in which the Monument Quilt honors this legacy, by intervening in oppressive and silencing responses to sexual and intimate partner violence, with a focus on LGBTQ survivors and survivors of color. The Monument Quilt owes its existence to the NAMES Project, an ongoing ritual for grief for those lost to AIDS. Founded in 1985, the NAMES Project intervenes in the homophobic response to AIDS in the US, and created a platform for loved ones to grieve their loss. Read more from Dr. Kalima Young: Monument Quilt History Series: Kalima Young

AIDS quilt, 1987