Swatch and learn
UCA art professor curates show at Baum Gallery
When Barclay McConnell, director of the Baum Gallery of Fine Art at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, asked Deborah Kuster if she would curate a show featuring fiber art, Kuster did not hesitate to answer in the affirmative.
“This will be the first fiber-art exhibition in the Baum,” said Kuster, an art professor at UCA. “I’m really excited about it. There are 13 participating fiber artists.”
The exhibit, Finding Shelter: An Exhibition of Contemporary Fiber Art, will open today and continue through Feb. 18. The public is invited to an opening reception from 4-6 p.m. today.
Kuster, who has been teaching art education and a fiber-art class at UCA for 13 years, said McConnell and members of the Baum Gallery’s faculty exhibitions committee contacted her “about three years ago to do a fiber-art show.
“About a year-and-half ago, I started contacting artists. I invited 14, and 13 accepted. I couldn’t believe it. I was so thrilled,” Kuster said.
“I have never met any of the artists. I did research, looked at websites and read various magazines on fiber art. I chose the ones that were compelling to me for some reason or other,” she said.
“The more research I did, I saw that many of them were creating works that might be considered some sort of shelter — pods, houses, nests. These works seem to protect or hold something sacred,” Kuster said.
“That is how I came up with the theme Finding Shelter. It was a lot of fun finding
these artists. It was like a scavenger hunt,” she said.
“This idea of ‘shelter’ is broad — possibly as physical, emotional, interpersonal, environmental or as finding shelter in the creative process itself,” Kuster said in her curator’s statement. “My goal is that this exhibit will provide shelter for the viewer in some personal way.”
“We are thrilled to have Deborah curate this show for us,” McConnell said. “I have long been interested in having a fiber-art show here. I knew she would be an amazing curator, and she is.”
Although Kuster is a fiber artist herself, she does not have work in the show.
Kuster defines contemporary fiber art as “art made using traditional fiber techniques such as sewing, weaving, basketry, crochet, knotting, embroidery and textiles.
“It can also be defined as art made with fibrous materials such as fabric, string, yarn, rope, strips of wood, grasses, vines, reeds, fur and hair,” she said. “So in this exhibit, there are works made in traditional basketry techniques, such as coiling and twining, yet are sculptural and do not function as baskets, or the artist uses various materials such as metals. Also, there are works that are made with traditional fibrous materials such as thread and horse hair, but [made] in unexpected ways.”
Participating artists are Kate Anderson of Massachusetts; Lanny Bergner, Eve Deisher and Jan Hopkins, all of Washington state; Lindsay Ketterer Gates of Pennsylvania; Polly Jacobs Giacchina and Amanda Salm, both of California; Andrea Graham of Ontario, Canada; Tom Lundberg of Colorado; Nnenna Okore and Ann B. Coddington, both of Illinois; Tucker Schwarz of New York; and Jo Stealey of Missouri.
Coddington and Stealey will present gallery talks from 5-6 p.m. Jan. 28, followed by a public lecture at 6.
There is no admission charge for the gallery or the lectures.
The Baum Gallery of Fine Art is in McCastlain Hall at UCA. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, with extended hours to 7 p.m. Thursdays.
For more information, call (501) 450-5793 or visit www. uca.edu/art/baum. Information is also available on Facebook and Twitter.