The Bay Area Forum for artists, Arts Council aficionados & collectors of , rugs & , baskets, costume & January 2008 Upcoming Programs and Announcements Volume XXIII, All programs are held in the Koret Auditorium at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park, Number 1 50 Hagiwara Tea Drive, San Francisco. Admission to the programs is FREE to TAC members, $10 for non-members, and $5 for for FAMSF members and students with I.D. No additional Museum admission fee is necessary. You may enter from the lower garage level or from the main floor near the entrance.

Saturday, January 12, 2008, 10:00 a.m. of the tribal mosaic of the region and the impact TRAPPINGS AND TENTS: NEW of Turkmen social structure and customs. He will PERSPECTIVES ON CENTRAL also explore the possible existence of separate ASIAN TURKMEN aesthetic traditions depending on the function of the weavings. Additionally, Poullada will take up With S. Peter Poullada the question of the influence of Islam and local In this presentation, S. Peter Poullada, noted religious customs on Turkmen weaving culture. scholar and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Rug Society, will present an analysis of Saturday, February 9, 2008, 10 a.m. Turkmen weavings using a contextual approach ENFOLDING HISTORY AND FLUX: focused on trying SUMBA THROUGH to understand PRESENT TIMES the cultural, With Jill Forshee social, and historical milieu Sumba, Indonesia’s elaborate and of Central supplementary warp (pahikung) textiles are Asian weaving. among the most dynamic and pictorial in the Poullada world. Historically worn by people of the noble combines caste, these vibrant fabrics persist in quality and ethnohistorical cultural importance for the people who create and research into wear them. Integral to Sumba’s tenacious cultural original sources system, they are worn at all ritual events and and analysis enfold the dead for passage to the next world. of aesthetic Sumbanese textiles have changed significantly traditions and through interaction with global markets, structural especially over the past four decades as Migrating Yomut family, northeast Iran. variables to provide a framework through tourism in Indonesia has grown. Today, textiles Original photo by William Irons. which we can understand the work of Turkmen in Sumba combine ancient ancestral symbols weavers—including the women weavers. He with contemporary images from around the will link the weavings within a continuum that world. Their designers pick and choose from extends from the tent, the inner world of the modern global culture while maintaining Turkmen family, to the wider world of the clan important traditional design principles, weaving encampment and further, to the outer world of methods, natural dye techniques, and indigenous Fine Arts the tribe and village and their interactions with iconography. Jill will bring a number of textiles Museums of San Francisco the bazaars and marketplaces of Central Asia, from her personal collection for the audience to Afghanistan, and Iran. see, touch, and even try on. de Young Poullada will look at the implications for Jill Forshee holds a PhD in cultural anthropology Legion Turkmen weavings of the variety and complexity from U.C. Berkeley. A Fulbright Scholar, she has of Honor Programs continue on page 3, col. 1 1 From the Chair more fun—the hospitality committee has been January 2008 busy welcoming members and newcomers to TAC Happy New Year! events, organizing the annual Sinton reception, and The last year was so full of great programs and prepping for the truly fabulous annual holiday party. events, it is hard to imagine doing any better, but There are many volunteers helping at these events. that is just what the Council has in Come join the fun. store for you this year. Your board has formed very Over the last 20 years, TAC has amassed an active committees and I thought you might like to endowment fund strictly for purchasing pieces for know what they are busy doing. the textile department. The acquisitions committee The new education outreach committee will assists the curatorial staff in the purchase of pieces be working on ways to augment the museum’s that will enhance the museum collection. educational programs. The FAMSF already has The board development committee has spent a program for visiting schoolchildren, but no months assessing the skill sets needed on the TAC textiles are included because they cannot be on board, interviewing prospective board members, permanent display. So, this committee is thinking and presenting applicants to the whole board for up ways to include textiles and to inspire kids to consideration and a board vote. Those candidates learn more about them. The committee is also are then presented for membership vote. Your board reaching out to the many college-level textile has 20 positions and three or four need to be filled programs in the Bay Area. Any members who want each year. to help with this effort are welcome. This year we will be developing a travel committee Film Festival anyone? Past chair Gretchen Turner to plan textile trips. Members are welcome to has transferred hundreds of textile films onto join this committee! Contact the office if you are DVDs, a format that can be shown in the FAM interested. auditoriums and beyond. Her efforts are truly a Past chair Peggy Gordon has led many successful labor of love, and a great resource. Do you know tours of local textile artists’ studios, and she will of a group that would welcome a showing? continue this year. They are wonderful and not to be Our amazing programming committee has more missed. Watch for email announcements. erudite speakers lined up a year ahead for our This year the fund raising committee will really gear fabulous monthly lectures. Come and hear them up with the special events committee to create and bring a friend. The Ethnic Textile Study Group some memorable and seriously fun events that also (ETSG) meets monthly and shows wonderful add to TAC funds. This past year we have begun a textiles collected by group members. special fund to offer speakers better pay. We also The communications committee has always need to address TAC’s basic operating budget. produced three newsletters a year, which are now The TAC membership dues do not cover all our available electronically! (go green, save paper and operating needs, which include speakers’ fees; postage!) They have also created and maintained audio visual fees; newsletter, flyer, and postcard the TAC website. Now they are working on other printing and postage; and paying our most efficient ways to make TAC more visible. We believe that and faithful office manager for her two days a week there are many “would be” TAC members out there with us. Several generous TAC members give annual who just don’t know about us yet. To that end, we donations toward these expenses, which are greatly created the card with our lecture schedule, and appreciated. However, it is our goal to make TAC’s now board member Hansine Goran has created a basic operations self-sufficient. stunning brochure explaining who we are and what Watch for email blasts to keep you up to date on all we do. We are so committed to this visibility idea the great events. This is your organization, so get that several board members have contributed the involved! And let’s make it grow. money to print this gorgeous brochure so that we See you soon! won’t have to use any TAC operating funds to try out this method of spreading the word. Laurel Sprigg Also, with visibility in mind—and to make things Chair, Textile Arts Council

2 Programs continued from page 1 Saturday, March 22, 2008, 10:00 a.m. Washington, DC, where she served been carrying out research in Indonesia DESIGN AND PATTERN as curator for Eastern Hemisphere on and off for 18 years. She is the Collections from 1984 to 2001. Author author of Between the Folds: Stories of IN THE TEXTILE ARTS OF of numerous publications connecting Cloth, Lives and Travels from Sumba CENTRAL ASIA textiles and mathematics, her current (2001) and Cultures and Customs of With Carol Bier research focuses on patterns in Islamic Indonesia (2006). She has also written With their bright colors and intricate art, exploring geometry and meaning. numerous articles and book chapters designs, the textile arts of Central Asia From 1995 to 2006 Bier taught “Pattern on Indonesian arts and cultures. Jill is have fascinated collectors, artists, in Islamic Art” at the Maryland Institute currently writing a novel about eastern and others in the West for well over a College of Art and courses on Islamic Indonesia and will be returning to the century. Whether large, floor-covering arts and cultures for the master of region in the near future for an carpets woven in geometric patterns liberal arts program at Johns Hopkins extended stay. Please join us for this or robes and household furnishings University. Since moving to the Bay insightful look at one of the vibrant decorated with tiny repeats of stylized Area last year, Bier has taught “Islamic cultures of Indonesia. floral designs, these textiles represent Ornament: Forms and Meanings” at many hours of labor undertaken in order Mills College, “Islamic Art” at the College to bring beauty to daily life. Textiles from of Marin, and “Sufism, Spirituality, and both urban developments and nomadic Science” and “Islamic Mysticism” in the encampments often give evidence of humanities and philosophy departments a thorough understanding of fibers, at San Francisco State University. filaments, and dyestuffs, and familiarity Please join us for what promises to with many different technologies. This be an extremely interesting look at the lecture will explore in detail just what beautiful textile arts of Central Asia. makes these textiles so intriguingly Camel trapping for a bridal procession (kejebelik) beautiful. Central Asia, Turkmen people, 19th century Carol Bier is president of the Textile Wool or goat hair; knotted pile (assymetrical knot, open to the left) Society of America and a research Gift of Caroline McCoy-Jones associate of the Textile Museum in 2002.122.10

FIRST ANNUAL LECTURE IN HONOR OF CAROLINE AND H. MCCOY JONES “Revisiting the Turkmen: What Have We Learned Since 1980?” Wednesday, February 6, 6:30 p.m. De Young: Koret Auditorium Admission: $12.00 Dr. Jon Thompson, until recently May breaking 1980 book, Turkmen: Tribal airs a few new ideas. This event is co- Beattie Fellow in Carpet Studies at Carpets and Traditions. In this lecture he sponsored by TAC, the San Francisco the Ashmolean Museum, University examines some of the many questions Bay Area Rug Society, and the Fine Arts of Oxford, is co-author of the ground- still unanswered since that time and Museums of San Francisco.

3 Curators Column Artwear in the Galleries

For the second year in a row, top San bag, making but has transformed it combination of clothing designers with Francisco galleries remained open on into a wearable art form. While bilum jewelry designers and seasoned artists a Sunday in November for an exclusive bags have been for centuries one of with emerging made for a lively event. one-day holiday sale of Bay Area the most ubiquitous female art forms in As artist Carol Lee Shanks wrote, “the wearable art designers. Artwear in the Papua New Guinea, Kata has emerged venue is perfectly suited to showcase Galleries is the brainchild of Marna Clark, as a true innovator—the first to use creativity. I look forward to having my who combined her jewelry design and the bilum making technique to create imagination run freely (while I create for events promotion skills to conceive clothing. Using both acrylic and next year’s event.)” and organize this event. Clark explains natural plant fibers, Kata creates vibrant The Textile Department is immensely that the art gallery is ideal to showcase works that combine an array of colors grateful to have been designated the wearable art. “I think of art-to-wear as with wildly complex geometric patterns. beneficiary of the event. Thank you to a contemporary art form. I wanted to Despite never hearing the term art-to- all the artists for continuing to inspire us present distinctive art-to-wear pieces as wear, Cathy Kata is truly a kindred spirit and to the Textile Arts Council for helping artwork in a gallery setting,” she said. “I of our Bay Area artists. to make this event a success. believe there is a symbiotic relationship For those who attended, there was the between the two and my goal was to unique opportunity to both purchase Jill D’Alessandro bring the best of these worlds together.” Associate Curator one-of-a-kind wearable art pieces and The Caroline and H. McCoy Jones Twenty-four artists, both jewelry and take in exhibitions in the galleries. The Department of Textile Arts clothing designers, participated in the event, including several artists represented in our own textile Galleries department collections. As former Rena Bransten Gallery Togonon Gallery Patricia Sweetow Gallery curator Melissa Leventon, who initially Stephen Wirtz Gallery Art Exchange Gallery Gregory Lind Gallery developed these collections for the Fine Arts Museums, explains, “The Bay Area Artists was, and to some extent remains today, Amber Marie Bently Elisa Bongfeldt Lydia Bransten Jean Cacicedo a Mecca for the fiber art and artwear Marna Clark Deborah Cross Katrin Gaethke Jenne Gilles Ellen Hauptli artists. I it was important to represent Ana Lisa Hedstrom April Higashi Cathy Kata Janet Lipkin Maja Karin some of the things that were going on in Moggridge Ocelot/Angelina DeAntonis Marilyn Petch Liz Saintsing our own backyard. Exhibiting in Artwear Carol Lee Shanks Nancy Shapiro Eric Silva Ruth Tamura Julia Turner in the Galleries were two of the founding Arlene Wohl members of the Art-to-Wear movement: Jean Cacicedo and Janet Lipkin. The fact that they are still working is a testament to the longevity of the field.” ARTWEAR INTHEGALLERIES Exhibiting alongside these Bay Area legends was the Jolika Fellow from Papua New Guinea, Cathy Kata. Curator Christina Hellmich and John and Marcia Friede developed the Jolika Fellowship, a cultural exchange program, to promote the art of Papua New Guinea by bringing scholars and working artists to the de Young. Cathy Kata works with the traditional medium of bilum, or string-

TAC Newsletter 4 Ethnic Textiles Study Group Special event announcement Want to learn more about ethnic textiles? Do The Textile Arts Council is pleased to present you have a collection of ethnic textiles that a roundtable discussion, “Appreciating you would like to share or know more about? Textiles,” with Ni Wayan Murni. A legend in The Ethnic Textiles Study Group meets —a successful female entrepreneur, who once a month to allow members to share opened the first restaurant in Ibud—Murni their enthusiasm about textiles from all over is also a longtime collector of antique the world. Headed by TAC board members Indonesian textiles. Please join us for this Serena Lee Harrigan and Mary Connors, rare opportunity to hear the insight and the Ethnic Textiles Study Group is a great perspective of a Balinese woman on the way to learn more about ethnic textiles from role textiles play within their society with others and at the same time be motivated to specific attention to how specific textiles are study an aspect of them that has intrigued worn and used. Murni will share a variety of you for some time. At each gathering, a examples for a “hands on” experience with member of the group gives a presentation an emphasis on Balinese textiles. You will about a particular subject related to the Wedding party, Tenganan certainly enjoy Murni’s warm personality and Pegeringsingan, Bali 1989 overall study topic. Various aspects of ethnic Photo by Jill D’Alessandro contagious passion for all things Indonesian. textiles—cultural, technical, aesthetic—are explored. Each member is expected to Where: At the home of Jan D’Alessandro, contribute to the group at some time. Many San Francisco times members bring pieces from their own When: Sunday January 27, 2008, collections to share. This is a great way to 10:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. meet fellow TAC ethnic textile enthusiasts Participation fee: $30 and a reason to read all those textile books If you are interested in joining us, please on your shelves! For more information, RSVP to Trish Daly at either TAC@famsf. contact Serena at [email protected] org or 415-750-3627. Space is limited to 20 or 415 666-3636 or Mary Connors at participants. Coffee and refreshments will be [email protected] or 415 482-8035. served.

Special Programs NEXT NEWSLETTER DEADLINE Tuesday, February 5, 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. February 18, 2008 Wednesday, February 6, 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Please send your copy to the TAC office De Young: Textile Study Room at [email protected] Dr. Jon Thompson will present two one-day programs on Central Asian carpets from the Fine Arts Museums’ renowned collection. He will lead a discussion on selected objects, with participants invited to join in and view the objects at close range. On day one, the focus will be on Turkmen carpets not currently on view in “For Tent and Trade: Masterpieces of Turkmen Weaving.” Day two will be devoted to the museums’ non-Turkmen Central Asian rugs. This is a chance to learn connoisseurship from one of the world’s leading experts on carpet studies and to see objects rarely on view. Fee: $250 per person. For information or to reserve a place, please leave a voicemail message at 415 750-7610 and your call will be returned. Space is very limited. Watch the Museum website (www.deyoungmuseum.org or www. thinker.org) for additional programs related to the exhibition. 5 Welcome Announcements to Our New Members We congratulate Karen Hampton, TAC Barbara Berk, TAC member and local Through October 31, member and master member of the designer, has had her distinctive hand- 2007 Baulines Craft Guild, who has been woven gold brooch accepted into the awarded a Eureka Fellowship from the permanent collection of the Museum Adela Akos Fleishhacker Foundation. This prestigious of Fine Arts Boston. Congratulations to Linda Anderson award is given to the artist in recognition another talented member of TAC. Sharon Barry of her work. Ms. Hampton’s latest work The San Francisco Tribal group held Bo Breda draws on family history and the narrative its fourth annual event in the Herbst Sylvie Carnot of relationship using and International Exhibition Hall in the Sharon various printing techniques on cloth. San Francisco Presidio, October Christovich The Kashmiri Shawl, from Jamavar 12th to 14th, 2007. As part of its Stephanie to Paisley, by Sherry Rehman and ongoing commitment to promote Costello Naheed Jafri, has been selected as the textiles and tribal art in the Bay Area, Donna Curley-Izzo 2007 recipient of the Textile Society of the association dedicated the proceeds America’s R.L. Shep award. The award is from its opening gala to the Fine Arts Kim Data given each year to a publication judged to Museums’ Departments of Textiles, Marjorie DeQuincy be the best book of the year in the field of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. A Lynn Faus ethnic textile studies. special thank you to all the SF Tribal Conchita Fayos members for their support. Jane Frorath Kathleen Fung Melinda Gable Ann Goldman Carole Hawkes Pamela Hiller Julie Jomo Charlotte Jordan Marguerite

Detail of Camel trapping shown on page 3 Kaufman Sharon McAllister Bette McKenzie TAC BOARD Victor Molina Laurel Sprigg, Chair Patricia Montgomery Paul Ramsey, Vice-Chair Margaret Morales Robin Hampton, Treasurer Georg Palmer Marion Coleman, Secretary Lang Anh Pham Ruth Anderson Kathy Judkins Advisory Board Ellen Resnek Patricia Christensen Darlene Jurow Peggy Gordon Kiki Revoir Mary Connors Barbara Kelly Karine Langan Melissa Rinne Linda Gass Gerry Masteller Barbara Shapiro Mary Spont Hansine Goran Bette McKenzie Gretchen Turner Julian Tomchin Serena Harrigan Dee Myers Susan York Eve Vanerstoel Ana Lisa Hedstrom Cynthia Shaver David Holloway

TAC Newsletter 6 GENERAL CALENDAR Until Jan. 13 The Diane and Sandy Besser Collection, Herbst FEBRUARY Exhibition Galleries, de Young Museum, San Francisco, Feb. 1 – April 15 Latvian Show, online gallery exhibition, www.thinker.org www.FiberScene.com Until Feb. 1 12th International Triennial of , Lodz Feb. 1 – March 23 California , Visions Art Gallery, 2007 – The American Artists, online exhibition, www. San Diego, CA, www.quiltvisions.org FiberScene.com Feb. 7 Opening Night Gala, Tribal and Textile Arts Show, Until Feb. 2 Needle : Borne of Thread and Air, Stretching Festival Pavilion, Fort Mason, San Francisco. Benefit the Limits of the Needle, Lacis, 2982 Adeline St., for the Textiles, Africa Oceania, and Americas Berkeley, www.lacis.com or 510 843-7178 departments of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. For Gala tickets, contact Ashley Stropes at Until Feb. 17 Marie-Antoinette and the Petit Trianon at 415 750-7656 or [email protected] Versailles, Special Exhibition Galleries and Rosekrans Court, Legion of Honor Museum, San Francisco Feb. 8 – 10 San Francisco Tribal and Textile Arts Show, Festival Pavilion, Fort Mason, San Francisco. For Until March 2 The E.M. Bakwin Collection of Indonesian ticket information www.caskeylees.com Textiles, Art Institute of Chicago, www.artic.edu Feb.10 – Apr. 27 The Contemporary Katagami: Works of Until March 23 Marian Clayden: The Dyer’s Hand, a Jennifer Falck Linssen, contemporary paper objects, retrospective, San Jose Museum of & Textiles, The Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles, CA,

ONGOING www.sjquiltmuseum.org , 408 971-0323 www.cafam.org Until March 30 Central Asian from the Rau Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum. London, www.vam.ac.uk MARCH March 7 – April 12 Beads of Whimsy, a juried exhibition of Until April 1 Between the Sea and the Desert: The Many contemporary , Textile Center, Minneapolis, Cultures of North Africa, Textile Museum of Canada, MN, www.textilecentermn.org Toronto, ON, www.textilemuseum.ca March 30 – April 5 Quilted Paintings on Silk, TAC board Until Sept. 7 For Tent and Trade: Masterpieces of Turkmen member Linda Gass teaches a five-day workshop Weaving, Textile Galleries, de Young Museum, San at Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts in Gatlinburg, Francisco, www.thinker.org TN. For information and to register, go to www. Ongoing Pattern Richness in Modern Japanese Textiles, arrowmont.org Seattle Art Museum, www.seattleartmuseum.org March – August Indigo, Textile Museum, Washington, DC, Until May 7 Exoticism: the Influence of Asia and Africa on www.textilemuseum.org Western Fashion, the Museum at FIT, NY, www.fitnyc. edu/museum HOLD THE DATE May 2 – 7 56th Annual Conference of Northern California Handweavers (CNCH), “The California Trail”, Double Tree Hotel, Arden Way, Sacramento, CA. Program and class listings and registration information available at www.cnch.org June 4 – 10 Shibori Symposium, Textile Center, Minneapolis, MN. Workshop presenters will include Yoshiko Wada, Ana Lisa Hedstrom, Jan Myers Newbury, and Chad Alice Hagen. www.textilecentermn.org/shibori08.asp

7 Textile Arts Council January Don’t miss these exciting TAC events! 2008 Trappings And Tents: New Perspectives On Central Asian Turkmen Weavings With S. Peter Poullada Saturday, January 12 Koret Auditorium de Young Museum Enfolding History And Flux: Sumba Textiles Through Present Times With Jill Forshee Saturday, February 9 Koret Auditorium de Young Museum Design And Pattern In The Textile Arts Of Central Asia With Carol Bier Saturday, March 22 Koret Auditorium de Young Museum Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco de Young Legion of Honor Textile Arts Council de Young Museum 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive Golden Gate Park San Francisco, CA 94118-4501 415-750-3627

OFFICERS Chair Laurel Sprigg Treasurer Robin Hampton

Office Manager Trish Daly

Editor Lucy Smith

January 2008 Visit our web site: www.textileartscouncil.org