Art Speaks: Celebrating the 2023 McKnight Fellows in Fiber Art
Presented by Textile Center
Tue, Jan 30, 6 pm
Textile Center
Tickets: Free
Join us for an engaging conversation celebrating the work and vision of 2023 McKnight Fiber Art Fellows Marjorie Fedyszyn and Delina White in conjunction with an exhibition (more information to be announced) featuring their work at Textile Center Jan 16–Apr 6, 2024. These artists address sustainability and environmentalism through personal connection with their materials, technique, and the traditions which they hail from.
About the Fellows
Marjorie Fedyszyn addresses the universal experiences of loss and human vulnerability, and the palpable tension around it, through her sculptural practice in textiles. Careful attention to process and the inherent properties of materials informs her creative vocabulary for this work, which simultaneously expresses ideas from broad environmental concern to personal grief and introspection. Using traditional craft techniques such as paper-making, hand stitching, and felt-making, Fedyszyn’s forms and installations emerge as emotional histories that investigate ideas of control and the realms of the personal and the global. Her work has been exhibited regionally and throughout the US, including at the Silverwood Park Gallery in St. Anthony, Hopkins Center for the Arts, South Dakota Museum of Art, Duluth Art Institute, Sebastopol Arts Center in California, and the Yeiser Art Center in Paducah, KY. Fedyszyn has been a Jerome Visual Arts Fellow and a Jerome Fiber Artist Project Grantee, and has received two Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative grants to support her work. marjoriefedyszyn.com
Delina White is a Native apparel designer, beadwork artist, and enrolled member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. Grounded in the traditional designs of the Great Lakes Woodland Anishinaabeg, her artist-designed fabrics utilize contemporary materials in her wearable works. As an intergenerational, cultural knowledge keeper, White communicates the values and beliefs of the original people of the Great Lakes Woodlands as passed from her grandmother and her grandmother before her, using apparel as a catalyst to widen approaches of learning, research, and creative exploration with her community. She has produced and participated in numerous fashion shows, including Northern Lights: A Native Nation Fashion Night in Minneapolis, the SW Association of Indian Arts fashion shows, and Walker Art Center’s 2Spirit Fashion Show. White was recognized as one of six Star Tribune 2019 Artists of the Year for her work with Hearts of Our People, Minneapolis Institute of Arts’ landmark exhibition, and was named a 2020 Artist in Business Leadership Fellow by the First Peoples Fund. She has also been recipient of a Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship and a US Artists Fellowship in Traditional Arts. iamanishinaabe.com
About the Fellowship
The intent of the McKnight Fellowships for Fiber Artists is to recognize and support talented Minnesota fiber and textile artists whose work is of exceptional artistic merit. These fellowships are in support of individual artists who are at a career stage beyond emerging. Fiber Artists, as defined for the purposes of this fellowship, are artists who use textile and fiber arts materials, processes, histories, traditions, and/or sensibilities in their artistic practice throughout the conception, execution, and resolution of their work. The fellowships are funded by the McKnight Foundation and administered by Textile Center.
About the McKnight Artist & Culture Bearer Fellowships Program
Founded on the belief that Minnesota thrives when its artists thrive, the McKnight Foundation’s Arts & Culture program is one of the oldest and largest of its kind in the country. Support for individual working Minnesota artists has been a cornerstone of the program since it began in 1982. The McKnight Artist & Culture Bearer Fellowships Program provides annual, unrestricted cash awards to outstanding mid-career Minnesota artists in 15 different creative disciplines. Program partner organizations administer the fellowships and structure them to respond to the unique challenges of different disciplines. Currently, the foundation contributes about $2.5 million annually to its statewide fellowships. For more information, visit https://www.mcknight.org/programs/arts-culture/mcknight-artist-culture-bearer-fellowships/.
About Textile Center
A national center for fiber art, Textile Center’s mission is to honor textile traditions, promote excellence and innovation, nurture appreciation, and inspire widespread participation in fiber art. Textile Center’s facility features fiber art galleries with rotating exhibitions, an artisan shop which supports working artists, a 300-seat auditorium, classrooms, and the Textile Center Pat O’Connor Library, one of the nation’s largest circulating textile libraries open to the public. Also included is the Ellen Erede Wells Dye Lab, the natural dye plant garden A Garden to Dye For, and staff offices. 
Please note that photographs and video footage may be taken throughout this event. These will be used by The Great Northern and its partners for marketing and publicity, our archives, on our website and in social media.
