SAQA 2012 Conference
Identity: Context & Reflection
This conference was held March 30–April 1, 2012.
The next conference is SAQA's "Expanding Horizons", Santa Fe, NM, April 25-28, 2013
Read the Conference Report, by Executive Director Martha Sielman
OVERVIEW
IDENTITY: Artists creating fiber and textiles often struggle with how to embrace their mediums while attempting to contextualize their meaning within the larger art world. Come meet with us in 2012 to explore your own artistic identity.
Conference, tours, and workshops cosponsored by Surface Design Association and Studio Art Quilt Associates, Inc.
Conference: March 30–April 1, 2012
Workshops: April 2–4, 2012
March 30 – Full day of lecture and panel presentations PLUS the Opening of Art Quilt Elements.
March 31 – Full day of tours of FiberPhiladelphia 2012 PLUS the Opening of Outside/Inside the Box.
April 1 – Morning lecture and panel presentations, followed by an optional critique session.
April 2–4 – Choice of Three-Day Workshops.
Philadelphia Marriott West, West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania
and Wayne Art Center, Wayne, Pennsylvania
Hotel and Travel Information
Conference participants must be members of either Studio Art Quilt Associates (www.saqa.com) or Surface Design Association (www.surfacedesign.org).
Download the Conference Brochure (PDF format)
SCHEDULE
March 30, beginning 9:00 a.m. – Full day of lecture and panel presentations PLUS the Opening of Art Quilt Elements. Events include keynote by Bruce Pepich; lectures by Alexandra Rella; Amy Orr and Dianne Hricko; Kathryn Pannepacker; and a panel presentation by the jurors of Art Quilt Elements 2012: Sandra Sider, Elizabeth Barton, and David Revere McFadden, moderated by Cindy Friedman
March 31, beginning 10:30 a.m. – Full day of tours of several of the thirty-two exhibitions offered through FiberPhiladelphia 2012 PLUS the Opening of Outside/Inside the Box.
April 1, 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. - Morning lectures and panel presentations, followed by an optional afternoon critique session. Presentations include a lecture by Sandra Sider; a panel discussion with Dominie Nash, Emily Richardson, Lorraine Glessner, moderated by Elizabeth Barton; and a closing keynote by Bruce Hoffman. An optional critique session is offered by Sandra Sider.
April 2–4 – Choice of Three-Day Workshops, 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m each day. Workshop instructors are Anne Vickrey Evans, Lorraine Glessner, Judy Langille, Cameron Anne Mason, Jan Myers-Newbury, and Adrienne Sloane. Myers-Newbury's and Mason's workshops are full, and Glessner's workshop is almost full. Laura Sapelly's is cancelled. For wait list for filled workshops, please email Dot Moye, conferencemanager@surfacedesign.org.
SPEAKERS
Opening Keynote: Bruce Pepich, Executive Director and Curator of Collections, Racine Art Museum
Museums and Contemporary Fiber Art: Where Are We Today?
Bruce Pepich provides a discussion of the place fiber art has in the collections and exhibition programs of American art museums—both those dedicated to craft and more encyclopedic institutions. Since museums train and inform artists, while also producing education programs for the general public, they can make significant contributions to the ways fiber artists see themselves and the manner in which the field is viewed. Recent achievements by fiber in this arena can help to establish a public context that frames fiber art, while also helping artists to create their own images of themselves as professionals.
Closing Keynote: Bruce Hoffman, independent curator and writer
Identity: Context and Reflection
Bruce Hoffman breaks down the three components of the conference theme: Identity/Context/Reflection, focusing on how he views the significance of individuality as it relates to community and place. He also examines the Artist’s personal viewpoint as it relates to the larger scope of regional, national, and world-view and how the choice and use of medium and technique plays a role in communicating specific views or ideas. He focuses on an exhibition he is curating at the Art Alliance in Philadelphia titled A Sense of Place.
Alexandra Rella, PT, DPT, Injury Prevention Specialist, University of Pennsylvania Health System
The Art of Working Safely—Ergonomics
Alexandra Rella will introduce participants to the basics of ergonomics and injury prevention. As artists and designers create their work and build their businesses they are exposed to risk factors, such as repetitive motion and awkward postures that can cause musculoskeletal discomfort and injury. This presentation will review solutions to minimize risk including safe working positions, tricks to surviving less than ideal working positions, computer ergonomics, and the importance of overall wellness in protecting your most important tool—your body!
Dianne Koppisch-Hricko, printmaker and educator
Amy Orr, Executive Director of FiberPhiladelphia
Unfolding FiberPhiladelphia
FiberPhiladelphia, an international showcase of innovative fiber/textile art, began in the late 90s and is a collaboration promoting the best in the expansive textile and fiber arts fields. The presentation covers the background of the event, the juried competition Outside/Inside the Box, the invitational Distinguished Educators, and previews other shows and venues comprising the 2012 festival.
Kathryn Pannepacker, textile/visual artist
Sex, Drugs and Stigma: Reflections on Making Art and Social Change
Both solo-studio and community-based work are critical to Kathryn Pannepacker’s personal vitality and mission as a visual/textile artist. In this talk she’ll share some who, what, where, when, how, and why’s—the process—of creating identity and meaning in the context of a complicated world. Art-for-all; have and have-nots welcome. A barrage of pictures will complement the journey!
Sandra Sider, President, Studio Art Quilt Associates, art history professor, studio quilt artist, curator, and critic
“And What Do YOU Do?”
Sandra Sider is basing her presentation on a survey of SDA and SAQA members completed in 2010, in which she asked how they identify what they do professionally. This topic originated with the speaker's own ambivalence at New York social events, when she answered, “I'm an artist,” then felt immediately compelled to qualify that statement with various descriptive phrases. Her lecture, which invites audience participation, will explore the significance of self-identity, and how we might better inform the world at large about ourselves.
PANELS
Cindy Friedman, moderator; Elizabeth Barton, Sandra Sider, and David Revere McFadden
The Jurying of Art Quilt Elements 2012
www.artquiltelements.com/
Friedman, an organizer of the long-running Art Quilt Elements exhibition, moderates a discussion between the 2012 jurors on the jurying process and the resulting exhibition, using examples from the 2012 pool to discuss how they evaluate and decide the merits of an entry. The panel presentation previews the exhibition that conference participants will visit later in the evening.
Elizabeth Barton, moderator; Lorraine Glessner, Dominie Nash, and Emily Richardson
Where have I come from and where am I going?
This panel examines the growth of three artists’ careers in light of their educations, life experiences, and visions. Each comes from a different background but has followed a clear path and developed a distinct and genuine voice. The panel will explore how each discovered who she wanted to be as an artist, key experiences in her artistic growth, and where her future lies.
EVENTS
Artist Speed Dating Icebreaker
Get to meet your fellow conference attendees during this fun event. Bring a sample of your work and/or 50 postcards or business cards, and be prepared to speak for two minutes about what you do and how you do it.
Friday Networking Luncheon
Conference participants will enjoy networking time during a luncheon at the conference hotel on Friday, March 30, providing a refreshing break to rejuvenate for more stimulating presentations on Friday afternoon. The luncheon is sponsored in part by C&T Publishing.
Art Quilt Elements
Friday evening (March 30) participants will attend the opening of the juried exhibition, Art Quilt Elements (AQE), at the Wayne Art Center. AQE 2012 is the tenth exhibition of this internationally acclaimed show set in suburban Philadelphia. Organizers state, “One of the distinctions of our show is our professional presentation of art quilts. The exhibition has been widely praised by reviewers and artists not only for exhibiting the quilts in a gallery setting but also for promoting the art quilt as an art form.” http://www.artquiltelements.com/.
Highlights Tour of FiberPhiladelphia 2012 and Opening of Inside/Ouside the Box
Saturday, March 31, will be Tour Day for the conference. Conference participants will board tour buses for a trip to into the city to enjoy the wealth of exhibitions offered by major institutions and independent venues during this biennial celebration of the art form.
The mission of FiberPhiladelphia is to enrich the Philadelphia region by exhibiting innovative textile art, supporting the advancement of education and awareness within the field of fiber and textile studies, and promoting community participation through the citywide projects, workshops, and lectures.
The price of the tour is included in conference registration. Tours will follow planned routes to visit clustered exhibition venues. Lunch and afternoon breaks will be scheduled, and will be the responsibility of the individual participant. The tours will end at the Crane Arts Building for the opening of the juried exhibition Outside/Inside the Box.For a complete listing of exhibitions during the tour please visit
www.fiberphiladelphia.org/fiberphiladelphia_exhibitions_2012
Optional Event: Critique Session
Sunday, April 1. 2:00 p.m.
Sandra Sider will offer a two-hour art critique session the afternoon of Sunday, April 1. She will critique one completed fiber piece or work-in-progress of any conference attendee who has preregistered for the critique, but there is a limit of ten pieces (one per participant). Maximum size of the works is 5’x5’.
Attendance by observers is limited to fifteen, who must also preregister. Participation fees are applied to the cost of renting the space for this event:
• $25 for those with pieces to critique Session is FULL (To be on the wait list, please email conferencemanager@surfacedesign.org.)
• $15 for observers - Session is FULL
REGISTRATION
Registration for the conference has closed.
NOTE: a $50.00 administrative fee is charged for any changes to a confirmed reservation. Any registration fee refund must be requested in writing and received by March 1, 2012.
After March 1, 2012, no refunds will be made. We encourage you to send a qualified substitute if you cannot attend.
All registrants must be members of either SAQA or SDA. To join before registering go to www.saqa.com or to http://surfacedesign.org/get-involved/join-sda-great-member-benefits.
Student registrants must be enrolled full-time in a two-year or four-year program. They must provide copies of their current student I.D. (front and back) emailed to conferencemanager@surfacedesign.org before registration can be confirmed.
Conference sessions will take place at the Philadelphia Marriott West in West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. The one-day bus tour will travel into Philadelphia for exhibitions and openings.
Three of the post-conference Three-Day Workshops will be held at the hotel (Mason, Sapelly, and Sloane) and four (Evans, Glessner, Langille, and Myers-Newbury) will be held at the Wayne Art Center. Participants in the four workshops at the Wayne Art Center will need to provide their own transportation or reserve a spot on the daily shuttle. These participants may also order a box lunch to be delivered to the art center. Choices of menu items will be available with confirmation.