Innovations in Textiles 2019 is a collaborative event throughout the St. Louis, Missouri region. Created to investigate the state of contemporary textile arts, Innovations in Textiles 2019 is comprised of over 30 regional nonprofit & commercial art galleries, organizations and museums that have joined forces to present innovative exhibitions that explore fiber art, textiles and fashion created by local, regional, national, and international artists.

Use the following links to navigate the conference website:

Beyond the Surface is generously sponsored by:

  
 

 

 

Schedule

(subject to change)

Registration & Fees

• Registration: $325
• Student registration: $140
• Bus Tour Only: $75
• Workshops: Separate fees – see workshop section below

Registration closed September 30. If you’d like to register, please contact executivedirector@surfacedesign.org to check availability.

If you must cancel your participation for personal reasons, send an email to info@surfacedesign.org by September 3 to receive a refund. A $50 administrative fee will apply.

Important Dates

• February 28: Registration for SDA members opens February 28th
• May 1: Future Tense 2019 Call for Entry closes
• September 10: PechaKucha-style member presentations Call for Entry closes
• June 7: Beyond the Surface, juried members exhibition Call for Entry closes
• July 31: Small Works Call for Entries closes
• August 31: Early bird registration deadline
• September 3: Hotel Room block deadline. No conference refund after this date
• September 15:Student scholarship application deadline
• September 30:Registration closes September 30th. After that date, please contact executivedirector@surfacedesign.org to check availability.
• October 3: Conference opens

Location, Lodging, & Transportation

Location
Events are located near our exhibition venue, St Louis Artists’ Guild, and the Clayton Plaza Hotel where we hold a block of rooms for attendees. If you plan to stay longer, St Louis has good public transportation and is rich with museums, attractions and other art activities.

• St Louis Artists’ Guild, https://www.stlouisartistsguild.org/
• Missouri History Museum, https://mohistory.org/museum
• Other non-conference events will be available to conferees
• Workshop locations coming soon

Lodging
Clayton Plaza Hotel – SDA has reserved a block of rooms for October 3-6

• Located near St Louis Artists’ Guild and Washington University, one metro stop away from the Missouri History Museum and other St. Louis attractions
• Hotel amenities include: free shuttle bus from the airport, free parking and breakfast
• Room fees $129 per night plus applicable tax and fees. To guarantee this rate, you must make your reservation by September 3.
• Instructions for reserving a room will be provided at the time of conference registration

Transportation

• MetroLink is right near our conference location. The Washington University, Missouri History Center is one stop away.

Featured SDA Exhibitions

• SDA’s Annual Members’ Exhibition, Beyond the Surface, September 20-October 23, 2019 St Louis Artists’ Guild. Jurors are Jo Stealey and Jim Arendt.
• Future Tense 2019, SDA’s Annual Student Exhibition, scheduled for Edwardsville Art Center, Edwardsville, IL. September 6 – October 11. Jurors are Tamryn McDermott and Kim Eichler-Messmer.
• Small Works, SDA all member, non-juried exhibition. Webster University’s Arcade Contemporary Art Projects Gallery, October 3 – Dec 15. Call for Entries open until July 31.

Bus Tours

SDA has partnered with Innovations in Textiles 2019 to offer 5 different bus tours to galleries participating in Innovations in Textiles Exhibitions. Bus tours are included in Beyond the Surface registration, but will also be open to non-registrants as of June 1. You can choose your bus tour when you register for the Conference. See Bus Tour details HERE. We will provide more details with links to exhibiting galleries when information becomes available.

10 x 20: PechaKucha-style Member Presentations

SDA Members have a special opportunity to present their work at Beyond the Surface. Up to 10 conference attendees will be selected to give a “PechaKucha-style” presentation. PechaKucha (“chit chat” in Japanese) is a format for concise presentations originating in Tokyo and adopted all over the world. Up to 10 selected SDA members will present 10 images, 20 seconds each, speaking while the visuals advance automatically.

Applications now closed

A Conversation with Jane Sauer & Mark Richard Leach

Join us Friday, October 4, 6-8pm for A Conversation with Jane Sauer & Mark Richard Leach, featuring food and wine at the art-filled home and studio of local artist Marianne Baer. Jane Sauer will share personal stories about her long distinguished career as an artist, Santa Fe gallerist and curator, and the relationship between artist and gallery owner. Mark Richard Leach, a founding Director and Chief Curator of the Mint Museum of Craft + Design in Charlotte that now offers institutional planning and curatorial services for visual artists. Leach will speak about the roles of the curator in locating/evaluating artists in addition to the relationship to the overall mission of the Museum. He will also briefly discuss the Crafts Emergency Relief Fund (CERF) and share copies of CERF+’s recently published workbook, a resource for working artists and for those whose who wish to preserve their life’s work. Tickets are $100, (80% donation to SDA) supporting SDA programming, awards and support for the field of textiles. Please email executivedirector@surfacedesign.org for tickets.

Student Events

Two special events have been tailored for student attendees.

• Future Tense 2019, annual juried student exhibition
• Figuring It Out: Truths of Being Successful, with panelists Rena Wood, Jennifer Reis, Catherine Reinhart, moderated by Andrea Vail. Textiles and fiber art offer a multitude of paths both freeing and daunting. During this panel, professional and emerging artists will discuss their practice and career. Navigating the successes and challenges of creating within the field of textile and fiber art will also be discussed. Intended for students, life-long learners, makers who work in multiple fibers media, and all creatives who are interested in learning about different paths for success within our field.

Student Scholarships

SDA is pleased to offer 4 student scholarships to cover the cost of student registration ($140) and a shared hotel room. Applications now closed.

Pre-Conference Workshops

Pre-conference workshops will be on October 2 & 3. Taught by well regarded instructors, these classes offer participants a small group, in-person learning experience and reflect an exciting variety of fiber/textile subject areas. Make the most of your time in St. Louis by signing up for more than one! Register early; class sizes are small and may fill quickly.

Summary of workshops is below, or view detailed information here.

Important Dates

• June 1: Workshop registration opens to non-conference participants
• August 1: Workshops that don’t meet the minimum enrollment of 5 will be cancelled
• September 3: No workshop refunds after this date

Note: Registration for workshops that have minimum enrollment will continue until filled.

Registration
You can list alternative choices. If your first choice is cancelled due to low enrollment, you can select an alternative or a refund. If you would like to be added to a waitlist for a workshop that is already at capacity, email info@surfacedesign.org. To view available workshops, see below. For more details, click on individual workshop titles.

Accessibility
For questions about accessibility or to request accommodations please contact Carolyn Hopkins at info@surfacedesign.org or (707) 829-3110.

Cancellations
If you must cancel your participation for personal reasons, send an email to info@surfacedesign.org by September 3 to receive a refund. A $50 administrative fee will apply.

Wednesday, October 2 Workshops

Summary of workshops is below, or view detailed information here.

Thursday, October 3 Workshops

Summary of workshops is below, or view detailed information here.

Questions

Questions? Email us at info@surfacedesign.org

Speakers

Carissa Carman
SITE Lab: Surreal Innovations in Textile Environments
Carissa Carman’s multidisciplinary artwork includes playful site specific interventions; pseudo–purposeful yet soulful and generous. Her performances, sculptures and printed materials reference already established systems, occupations, and skills while maintaining the aesthetic of the handmade. Her work incorporates social activity, collaboration and public interventions that infuse botany, food, agriculture and communication alongside portable objects and structures. Carman is Lecturer in Fibers at the School of Art Architecture and Design (SOAAD), Indiana University Bloomington.

Yvonne Osei
German born Ghanaian artist, Yvonne Osei, describes herself as an outsider artist making insider art. This is in reference to her identity as being black, female, and an Ashanti native operating in the confines of the Western art world. The term “outsider” also brings to light her outdoor creative practice, which is often fueled by travel and discovery in various cultures in Europe, West Africa and North America. Osei’s work examines beauty, colorism, the politics of clothing, complexities associated with global trade, and the residual implications of colonialism in post-colonial West Africa and Western cultures. Through her most recent work “Who Discovers the Discoverer?” and other artworks, she will unpack the importance of relying on public spaces to cultivate content and context for art.

Kate Anderson
Formally trained as a painter, St Louis artist Kate Anderson began knotting in 1996 after a workshop at Craft Alliance. Her knotted teapots reference the work of images from the pop era and-mid century cultural icons. Over the past 36 years, she has had extensive professional experience as a gallery director, curator, juror, panelist and workshop leader. Her work can be found in numerous significant private and public collections including the Philadelphia Art Museum, Museum of Fine Art, Boston, Minnesota Museum of American Art, Racine Art Museum, and Muskegon Art Museum, MI.

Basil Kincaid
Kincaid’s family is his driving motivation and primary artistic influence. Quilting as a practice is saturated on both sides of his family dating back over 100 years. He strongly believes that quilting opens a portal for him to exist with all of his ancestors that maintained the practice and potentially beyond. Quilting within the black cultural tradition has always served as a revolutionary space of joy, courage, and community in direct contrast to social and financial subjugation. Through his quilts, he is interested in addressing his own generational trauma hand in hand with the generational continuation of oral or creative tradition and focuses on introspection and self-healing as a way to impact the whole.

Hannah O’Hare Bennett
A paper and textile artist, Hannah is based in Madison, Wisconsin. Common themes in her work include landscape, earth, deep time, narrative poetry and materiality. During the time between earning a BFA in printmaking from the University of Kansas, and twenty years later, an MFA in textile design the University of Wisconsin Madison, she worked in food systems and organic agriculture that informs her current work. She spent the last year at residencies including: Kimmel Harding Nelson (NE), Madison Bubbler (WI), Tallgrass Prairie Residency (KS), Studioworks (ME), and Women’s Studio Workshop (NY). She shows her work regularly, has taught at the Morgan Conservatory (OH), and serves on the Board of the Friends of Dard Hunter.

Amy Meissner
Anchorage artist, Amy Meissner, combines traditional handwork, found objects and abandoned textiles to reference the literal, physical and emotional work of women. She has shown internationally, with textile work in the permanent collection of the Anchorage Museum, the Contemporary Art Bank of Alaska and the Alaska Humanities Forum. Her background is in clothing design, illustration and creative writing. Portfolio and blog at www.amymeissner.com.

Partners