Speakers
Lala de Dios/ Spain & Beatrijs Sterk/Netherlands: ETN President & Secretary General
Reiko Sudo/Japan; studied painting first and than textile design, handweaving and art at Musashino Art University in Tokyo (1975). Founded the Nuno Corporation (www.nuno.com) together with Junichi Arai in 1984, now she is the main designer and director of Nuno. Today Reiko Sudo is also a lecturer at Musashino Art University. Her experimental textiles have been exhibited worldwide, are part of many museum collections and have inspired textile industry. – Reiko Sudo was invited to this conference being a role model of the integration of craft, art and industry.
Lia Cook/USA is a professor of Textile Art at the California College of Arts (http://www.liacook.com). She works in a variety of media, usually combining Jacquard weaving with painting, photography and digital technology. She has established weaving firmly in the realm of fine art. Educated in textile art by the famous Ed Rossbach, she is a gifted teacher in pushing her students towards their own creative boundaries. Lia´s most recent project is a collaboration with neuroscientists to map in the brain the nature of the emotional response to woven faces.– Lia Cook was invited for the ETN conference as an example of crossing the divide between craft and fine art.
Cynthia Schira/USA has been exhibiting internationally for over four decades (www.cythiaschira.com). Her work is represented in the collections of many museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Chicago Art Institute. She was awarded a gold medal by the College of Fellows of the American Craft Council. Her work was in the 8th and 14th Lausanne Biennale. Cynthia Schira was a professor of Textile Design at the University of Kansas. Her digital Jacquard weavings combine and juxtapose various visual systems developing new allusions. – Cynthia Schira was invited as speaker for the ETN Conference because of bringing fine art back to weaving and because of her supportive function for her students.
Chunghie Lee/South Korea (BFA & MFA from Hongik University, Seoul, Korea), an internationally renowned fiber artist, lecturer and freelance writer, has been teaching Bojagi at Rhode Island School of Design for ten years. She was a Fulbright Scholar to RISD in 1994 and has shown her works internationally. She was an invited designer and lecturer for the Victoria & Albert Museum, London Fashion in Motion program April 2001. Her works are in numerous museums throughout the world including the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, U.K., and Museum of Art & Design, New York. She recently curated Hand of Korea: a touring exhibition shown in France, U.S.A., Korea and other venues. – Chunghie Lee was invited as a speaker because of her qualities to build bridges between East and West.
Louise Lemieux-Bérubé/CDN graduated in Art History at the Université du Québec in Montreal, studied Jacquard weaving at Rhode Island School of Design/USA and with Olivier Masson & François Roussel are the inventors of the Pointcarré software in France. Louise Lemieux Bérubé is the Founder of the Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles where she teaches students from around the world. In her own artwork she often works together with other disciplines e.g. with photography and dance. She just started a new series on contemporary dance. – Louise Lemieux-Bérubé was invited as a speaker because of her efforts to make computerized equipment available to textile artists at her centre.
Diana Springall/UK is a well-known British textile artist working for large commissions. Her work is in many collections including those of the Embroiderers Guild and the Victoria &Albert Museum. She has lectured and taught worldwide (especially in Japan and the USA), was the chairman of both the Embroiderers Guild and The Society of Designer Craftsmen and is Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She further is a well-known author and curator on the subject of contemporary embroidery. –Diana Springall has been a great support for the ETN throughout the past 20 years with numerous artists from Eastern Europe and beyond, staying at her home in Kent or receiving the contacts they needed. She is a great networker and we could not celebrate our 20th anniversary without her.
Marie O’Mahony/UK/AUS is a professor for Advanced Textiles art at the University of Technology Sydney and a Visiting Professor at the University of the Arts, London. In London she has been working as a textile and technology consultant for 15 years. She also is the author (a writer?) – her new book is titled “Advanced Textiles for Wellness and Health”. Exhibition curating includes “Cyborg” (Amsterdam), the “Fabric of Fashion” and “Techno Threads” (Dublin). – She was invited for this ETN conference because she has been active for ETN as an expert for new technology and for TF magazine as a writer.
Sarah E. Braddock Clarke/UK is a freelance lecturer, writer, curator and consultant. She also is a Senior Lecturer in Historical and Contextual Studies for University College Falmouth/UK and works as an External Examiner for the Design for Textile Futures (MA Degree at Central Saint Martins), University of the Arts, London/UK. Together with Marie O’ Mahony she was an author of “Techno Textiles” and “Sportstech”. She worked as a co-curator for “Future Textiles” for the Hub/UK (2005) and many further exhibitions. She belongs to the speakers of this ETN Conference because of her leading role to open up the new field of textiles and new technologies.
Laima Oržekauskienė/LT is a professor of Textile Art at Kaunas Art Institute, Department of Vilnius Art Academy. She led that Department from 1996 to 2006. She received the “Lithuanian Culture and Art Premium” Award in 2005. In her artwork she combines complex weaving with principles of contemporary art. Her colleagues are stating that she has been influential for the blossoming period of textile art Kaunas is currently going through. – She will represent this thriving textile art community of Kaunas at our conference with a view on the future.
Paulina Ortiz/Costa Rica, graduated in textiles at the California College of the Arts, is a textile artist and designer, consultant and lecturer in textile creation at the Veritas University of San José, Costa Rica. She is also a founder and a board member, the leader of the Secretariat of the Iberoamerican Textile Network (Red Textil Iberoamericana) and the organizer of the first meeting of this Network in 2010. – She is invited to the Kaunas Conference as representative of her networking organisation.
Máximo Laura/Peru, is a textile artist, consultant and lecturer. His vision is to bring age-old Andean textile culture into our modern world. – He is a board member of the Red Textil Iberoamaricana and has been invited to Kaunas to represent this organisation.
Candace Edgerley/USA is a textile artist and educator working with dyes and paints to create wall pieces and wearables, sold under the label Ginko Designs. She currently serves as the President of the Surface Design Association. – She is invited to the ETN Conference to represent her networking organisation.
Carolyn Kallenborn/USA works with fabric and metal to create garments and sculptural pieces. She was Assistant Professor at the Fiber Department of Kansas City Art Institute from 2001 – 2007. Furthermore she was active as the organiser of several SDA Conferences from 2003 to 2009. – In Kaunas she will represent the SDA together with Candace Edgerley.
Anne Wanner/CH, is involved in the studies of Art History at the University of Zürich. Additional studies in textile restauration at the Abegg Foundation Riggisberg, Switzerland and in textile techniques in Switzerland and in Finland. She worked for 20 years as curator of Textile Museum in St. Gallen. Member of ICOM and CIETA. She is maintaining a website (www.annatextiles.ch) providing information on textile events and publications. Together with the Embroidery Group within the CIETA she creates manuals of embroidery technology in 4 languages. – She is invited because of her generous information activities.
Ludmila Egorova & Andrew Schneider (she is an art critic, he is a textile artist), working on textile events in their country are open to visitors worldwide. They are the organizers of International Biennial of Textile Art „Scythia” and Mini Textile Exhibitions. They do this inspired by ETN from the early 90s. They have initiated textile cooperation between countries of the Black and The Mediterranean Sea regions. – They are invited to represent the South-Eastern part of Europe.
Gina Morandini/Italy is a well-known Italian textile artist, who after the first focus on traditional techniques, turned to experimentation with diverse textile materials and metal. She took part internationally in fiber art and contemporary art exhibitions, acted as a jury member for the Intl. Fiber Art Biennial of Chieri/I as also for the Intl. Tapestry Triennial of Tournai/B (in 2005 and 2008). She initiated and curated the important Intl. Valcellina Award for young fiber artists in Maniago/I (8 editions). – She was invited as a speaker because of her focus on the promotion of young textile artists.
Marina Blumin/Russia is a textile curator at the St. Petersburg Hermitage. Her scientific interest is related to Soviet propaganda textiles and European textiles from the 20th century. She also works as an examiner for the Textile Arts Department at the Academy of Applied Art and Industrial Design of St. Petersburg and she is a member (art critic) of the Union of Artists. – She was invited because of her openness for contacts from all over the world and because of the efforts to disclose St. Petersburg for us.
Vibeke Vestby/N is a weaver and artist, former lecturer and now a manager of a unique tool the TC1, a Jacquard loom for textile artists which she invented in the 80s. This weaving equipment, now available at schools, art centers and at individual textile artist workshops, has brought about a whole new generation of digital Jacquard weaving artists. – Vibeke Vestby is an ETN Board member and will represent the new developments in her field.
