University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Textile Society of America Newsletters Textile Society of America Spring 2017 Textile Society of America Newsletter 29:1 — Spring 2017 Textile Society of America Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/tsanews Part of the Art and Design Commons Textile Society of America, "Textile Society of America Newsletter 29:1 — Spring 2017" (2017). Textile Society of America Newsletters. 74. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/tsanews/74 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Textile Society of America at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Textile Society of America Newsletters by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. VOLUME 29. NUMBER 1. SPRING 2017 Multiversity exhibit and Great Hall of the Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver, British Columbia All photos courtesy of Jean Kares Newsletter Team BOARD OF DIRECTORS Editor-in-Chief: Wendy Weiss (TSA Board Member/Director of External Relations) Designer: Meredith Affleck Vita Plume Member News Editor: Caroline Charuk (Membership & Communications Coordinator) President [email protected] Editorial Assistance: Natasha Thoreson and Sarah Molina Lisa Kriner Vice President/President Elect Our Mission [email protected] Roxane Shaughnessy The Textile Society of America is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that provides an international forum for Past President the exchange and dissemination of textile knowledge from artistic, cultural, economic, historic, [email protected] political, social, and technical perspectives. Established in 1987, TSA is governed by a Board of Directors from museums and universities in North America. Our members worldwide include Owyn Ruck curators and conservators, scholars and educators, artists, designers, makers, collectors, and Treasurer others interested in textiles. TSA organizes biennial symposia. The juried papers presented at [email protected] each symposium are published in the Proceedings available at http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/ textilesoc. It also organizes day- and week-long programs in locations throughout North Amer- Lesli Robertson ica and around the world that provide unique opportunities to learn about textiles in various Recording Secretary contexts, to examine them up-close, and to meet colleagues with shared interests. TSA distrib- [email protected] utes a Newsletter and compiles a membership directory. These publications are included in TSA membership, and available on our website. Wendy Weiss Director of External Relations [email protected] About the Newsletter Catharine Ellis Director of Internal Relations The Textile Society of America Newsletter is published two times a year as a member benefit and [email protected] serves to announce and report on the Biennial Symposia. In addition, the newsletter reports on TSA programs, international textile news, and lists conferences, courses, exhibitions, grants, job Linda Eaton postings, and tours. Advertising space is available. Details are at: http://textilesocietyofamerica. [email protected] org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/TSA-Paid-Advertising-Guidelines_7_8_2016.pdf. Sandy Peinado Submissions are welcome. [email protected] Recent newsletters can be downloaded from the TSA website as PDFs: Ann Peters http://textilesocietyofamerica.org/news/newsletters/ [email protected] Newsletters dating from 1989 through 2004 are available on Digital Commons: Rowland Ricketts http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/tsanews/ [email protected] Lee Talbot Newsletter Submission Guidelines: [email protected] To submit content to the Editor please e-mail [email protected] with the subject line, “submission.” Text should be sent as Microsoft Word files and images should be sent as Ruth Barnes individual JPEG files. Please include image captions and a one to three sentence author bio for [email protected] reviews and articles. Please keep articles and reviews to 600 words. Lauren Whitley [email protected] Stay in Touch Dominique Cardon International Advisor to the Board eNews: In addition to the PDF newsletter, TSA distributes regular e-mails with up-to-date news [email protected] of programs and opportunities. Subscribe at http://textilesocietyofamerica.org/news/subscribe/ to keep up with program registration dates, scholarship and award opportunities, and news from the field. STAFF Caroline Charuk Membership & Communications Coordinator [email protected] Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/textilesocietyofamerica Follow us on Twitter: @TextileSoc or on Instagram: @textilesociety Find colleagues on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/textile-society-of-america Spring 2017 Newsletter of the Textile Society of America Page 2 SPRING 2017 Letter from the Editor NEWSLETTER CONTENTS “IT WAS IN THE TIME OF THE TURTLES, AND THAT TIME 3 Letter from the Editor was over,” Alice Hoffman writes in The Marriage of Opposites. “All along the harbor there were lights, and the turtles went else- 5 Letter from the President where to lay their eggs. They would not return, just as Justine and I both knew we were never going back.” Rachel and Jus- 6 Call For Submissions: 2018 Biennial Symposium tine grew up together in St. Thomas, practically sisters. Rachel Pomié Petit was the mother of Camille Pissarro and Justine the fictional mother of Libby, a daughter abducted by her father for 10 TSA News a ”better life” in France—to be raised as a white woman. • Textiles Close Up • Fellows of the Textile Society of America In this historical fiction, the author provides the reader with the outline of a documented past and then creates a narrative that • R. L. Shep Ethnic Textile Book Award 2016 Nominees extrapolates feelings and conversations, while peopling the • Symposium Workshop Reviews page with fictional individuals who surround the central char- acters and allow the author to voice her position. The reviews I 16 Steps Towards Decolonizing Craft have read of this book miss the essence of it. Set in 19th century St. Thomas, the Virgin Islands, and Paris, the reader discovers along with the protagonist, Rachel, that identity and parentage 18 Book Reviews are not self-evident, that social norms are guideposts to trans- • Texts and Textiles: Affect, Synæsthesia and Metaphor in gress in pursuit of greater human values, and that the commu- Fiction nity will struggle to preserve barbaric norms. Romantic love, • Molas: Dress, Identity, Culture parental love, and tribal bonds are on the page for the reader • Fabricating the Tenjukoku Shūchō Mandara and Prince to examine. Betrayal and loyalty appear side by side. The small Shōtoku’s Afterlives community of Jews who have fled pogroms, and blacks—some servants, some enslaved, some who have saved their white • Muslin: Our Story and Unbroken Thread: Banarasi Brocade owner from certain death—form allegiances and alliances that Saris at Home and in the World last lifetimes, usually at excruciating cost to themselves and • Phulkari: The Embroidered Textiles of Punjab from the Jill their families. and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection This tale, set 150–200 years ago, functions at least in part as a foil to explore identity issues similar to ones we face today. What 24 Weaving Stories: Sadu Weaving of Kuwait kind of equity is available to individuals who have endured a legacy of systemic racism, poverty, or marginalization of any 26 In Memoriam: Barbara Goldberg sort? How do people for whom access to resources is more easily available appreciate the challenges others face because of the color of their skin, their gender identification or sexuality, 27 Featured Exhibitions or the economic situation of their birth? • San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles In the Poetry Project Newsletter first published in 1999 and • form & concept reprinted in What is Poetry? (Just Kidding, I Know you Know) in 2017, writer Samuel Delany defines categories as social impo- 30 International Report sitions, not the essence of identity. When he says he is a gay, • Conservación y Restauración en la Universidad Nacional black, male writer, he also says these categories need to be ex- Mayor de San Marcos: Lima, Perú amined and analyzed. Accepting the larger culture’s definitions • Recovery of Textile Techniques from Pre-Hispanic Peru without critical interrogation means we fall prey to them. While easy definitions do not work, evading definition also misleads, he says. 32 Member News Members of the Textile Society of America have asked us to examine issues as profound as the ones above. As newsletter editor, I am grappling with how I use language to talk about makers and artifacts, just as I am responsible for providing edi- torial guidance to writers. In this newsletter, guest author Aram Han Sifuentes begins a conversation about how we can decol- onize craft. For some readers this might be a new construct. It was for me. We now have an opportunity to discuss it and Spring 2017 Newsletter of the Textile Society of America Page 3 thoughtfully consider our roles when venturing to new territories outside of our neighborhoods. The Milton Sonday Archives For people passionate about textiles, we often do travel outside our birth areas and cultural Following the generous gift of his research papers to The Metropolitan Mu- backgrounds. We acquire familiarity and exper- seum of Art’s Antonio Ratti Textile Center, renowned textile scholar Milton