The Bay Area Forum for artists, Textile Arts Council aficionados & collectors of weaving, rugs & tapestries, baskets, costume & wearable art April 2014 Upcoming Programs and Announcements Unless otherwise indicated*, all programs are held in the Koret Auditorium at the de Young Museum in Volume XXIX, Golden Gate Park, 50 Hagiwara Tea Drive, San Francisco. Admission to the programs is FREE to TAC Number 2 members, $10 for non-members, and $5 for FAMSF members and students with I.D. No additional Museum admission fee is necessary to attend TAC lectures. You may enter from the garage level or the main floor entrance between the main and side doors to the Museum. (*alternate location, when indicated, is the Legion of Honor Museum, 34th Ave & Clement St., San Francisco.) Saturday, April 19, 2014, 10 a.m. values that work. Shelly Zegart continues to WHY QUILTS MATTER: HISTORY, demolish the divisions that inhibit the reception of ART, AND POLITICS the quilt as art—both in the minds of makers and With Shelly Zegart viewers. This is a rare opportunity to learn about the Shelly Zegart has spent more than three decades evolution of her career with quilts, She shares researching, documenting, and showcasing the both favorite quilt images as well as some key rich heritage of quilting in America. Garnering clips from her nine episode documentary, “Why national and international recognition, her work Quilts Matter: History, Art & Politics,” to illustrate transcends stereotype and myth, combining her presentation. She will talk about the goals rigorous academic scholarship with a deep she had from the outset when deciding to create respect and personal connection to the craft. the documentary and its Discussion Guide, who Her lectures, essays, and books, epitomized by she was trying to reach and why, and what she her 2008 article, “Myth learned along the way. and Methodology: Shelly Zegart Unpicks From collector, scholar, dealer, author, to African-American filmmaker, Shelly is always looking at the role and Quilt Scholarship,” in impact of quilts at the center of American culture. the British art journal, The task is far from complete. Selvedge, embrace Since 1977 when Shelly Zegart first fell in love concerns that engage with quilts, she has curated numerous exhibitions collectors, curators, in the U.S. and abroad, lectured on all aspects historians, folklorists, of quilt history and aesthetics, and written for and others. numerous publications. See her website at http:// Quilts, as Shelly www.shellyzegart.com. She was a founder of will discuss in her The Kentucky Quilt Project Inc., the first state presentation, are the documentation project, and The Alliance for Why Quilts Matter: History, Art & Politics, DVD tangible expressions American Quilts, which originated The Quilt Index. Cover, 2011. of ideas about art, Her private collection was acquired and exhibited self, and community that range across a wide by The Art Institute of Chicago in 2004. Zegart spectrum. As the quilt makers of Gee’s Bend, was most recently the Executive Producer and Alabama, will tell you, the consideration of their Host for the nine part documentary, “Why Quilts Fine Arts work as art is new to their way of thinking. It Matter: History, Art & Politics” that has been aired Museums of is not a question of the ability to create and to on more than 200 select PBS stations. http:// San Francisco appreciate the aesthetics of their work, but one www.whyquiltsmatter.org. Shelly Zegart is a de Young of how the contemporary art world receives and graduate of the University of Michigan. Legion of Honor Programs continue on page 2, col. 1 1 Programs continued from page 1 Saturday, May 17, 2014, 10 a.m. Tenth Annual Carol Walter Sinton Program For Craft Art TRADITION, INNOVATION, AND INSPIRATIONS OF A CONTEMPORARY NAVAJO WEAVER With D.Y. Begay my imagination with colors and beauty, and inspires curiosity. These images are Tradition: I will share personal stories replaced at the end of the day by flaming about growing up as a sheepherder and oranges as the sun sets for the evening learning Navajo style weaving. These Many Mesas, D.Y. Begay and night takes on dark, forbidding stories will include details on shearing colors. These daily encounters with light, sheep, washing and carding wool, Saturday, June 14, 2014, 10 a.m. color, remarkable land formations, and and spinning the wool on a Navajo lap a lifetime of memories are the textures LAMPUNG IMAGERY, spindle. I will also talk about my spiritual I reflect on, interpret, and explore in my TEXTILE ICONOGRAPHY OF connection to the unique native plants tapestries. SOUTH SUMATRA that I harvest and use medicinally or for dyeing yarn to achieve colors in my I will display and discuss one of my With Thomas Murray recent tapestries that exhibits a Navajo tapestries. In addition, I will share the The Lampung District in south Sumatra style weaving and innovative design. importance of how Navajo weaving is home to the most celebrated textile stories are told and shared. D.Y. Begay is a member of the Navajo tradition of the Indonesian Archipelago. Nation, born and raised on the Navajo This is an area known at its core for reservation in the community of Tselani. ancient Austronesian megaliths, Bronze She was born to the Totsoni’ (Big Water) Age decorative influences, and the great Clan and the Tachinii’ (Red Running cultural impulse of the Buddhist/Hindu into Earth) Clan people. Her early state of Srivijaya. A millennium ago, schooling was at the boarding schools there also washed upon its shores a on the Navajo reservation, St. Michael cosmopolitan world of ideas and trade High School, and later at Arizona State goods from China, India, Arabia, and University, where she received her Europe in exchange for prized Lampung bachelor’s degree in fine arts and art pepper. From this we witness a cultural Begay harvesting for natural dying. education. Begay’s tapestries have and aesthetic hybridization at its most been collected by major museums fertile, both esoteric and compellingly Innovation: I combine the mastery of and published internationally, and beautiful, but not widely understood. the traditional Navajo style of weaving have been collected by both private with diverse design concepts rooted and major museums in North America in classic themes, while constantly and in Europe. Begay’s many credits exploring and experimenting with include co-curating exhibits in Athens, new ideas, mediums. and materials. Ohio, (Kennedy Museum of Art); New This effort of integrating non-regional York (National style designs and color combinations, Museum of the uncharacteristic of most Navajo American Indian weavers, has become a current Smithsonian ambition for me. Institute); and Inspiration: I will present visual images in Santa Fe, of how my tapestries are inspired New Mexico by the high desert landscape, and (Wheelwright how I translate my impression of the Museum of the Tampan Darat “Interior” Ritual Cloth, Komering; environment into my weaving. The American Indian). Cotton; supplementary weft, 18th/19th Century. sunrise is often my canvas: it seduces photograph of D.Y. Begay Programs continue on page 4, col. 1 2 FROM THE TEXTILE ARTS COUNCIL BOARD CHAIR April 2014 Mark your calendars for two exciting events in region in an effort to preserve traditional TAC BOARD the month of May. The Textile Arts Council Board techniques and materials. Carol was also an Rose Kelly of Directors is throwing a Garden Party for all its avid collector, and textiles from her collection Chair members. Please join us on May 4th from 2 to 4 are now part of the collection of the Fine Shirley Juster p.m. in the County Fair Building in Golden Gate Arts Museums of San Francisco. These Vice Chair Park. Everyone is encouraged to wear a hat, for include works by some of the artists that she which I need no encouragement, and to dress admired and studied with, including Lillian Peggy Gordon with flair. One of the favorite pastimes at any TAC Elliott, Katherine Westfall, Kay Sekimachi and Treasurer event is admiring the clothing and jewelry worn Dominic Di Mare. Marlene Golden by other members. This is a great way to strike Assistant Treasurer We are honored to have Navajo weaver D. up a conversation with other textile aficionados Y. Begay discussing Tradition, Innovation Leslee Budge and share information about fiber techniques and Inspiration of a Contemporary Navajo Secretary and travels. Stay tuned for information about the as the speaker for this year’s Carol Walter Members Holiday Party, which is in the planning Sinton Program for Craft Arts. D. Y. Begay Barbara Beckmann stages. is a fourth generation Navajo weaver who Mikki Bourne The 11th Annual Carol Walter Sinton Program grew up surrounded by women who wove in Jean Cacicedo for Craft Arts will be presented on May 17 at 10 the traditional Navajo way. They taught her Catherine Cerny a.m. in the Koret Auditorium. Carol Sinton was how to card wool and spin it into yarn on a Sharon Christovich an artist and weaver, initially inspired by the work Navajo lap spindle, as well as how to dye the Alex Friedman of Dorothy Liebes. Her investigations of off-loom wool with local plants. D. Y. Begay received Karin Hazelkorn weaving led her to create imaginative baskets a SWAIA Discovery Fellowship in 2010 to Connie Levy primarily using natural found objects. She was fulfill her dream to travel to Peru for a cultural Liza Riguerra part of the Bay Area textile scene and showed exchange with indigenous weavers. She has Helen Scully her baskets at important venues including the also traveled to Bolivia and Guatemala to Dana Walsh Virginia Brier Gallery, the Palo Alto Art Center, the conduct workshops and exchange ideas and Shelley Wells California Craft Museum, and the M.