Providence, RI
Textile and clothing designer Liz Collins uses manually operated knitting machines to create garments that refer to the intricate structure of the human body, playing with the ideas of surface and anatomy and the process of knitting itself. Her experimental attitude toward materials and methods has led her to develop a unique technique of layering knits. She is also exploring the idea of knitting as a communal activity, staging performances and looking at the activity as a basis for intergenerational collectivity. Collins was trained at Rhode Island School of Design and spent several years running her own clothing label before deciding to switch to teaching. Although she occasionally creates freelance knitwear designs for other labels, her primary goals are to continue research into materials and to create a network of knitting cooperatives by developing and promoting craft-based technologies.
Pride, 2003, antique flags and polyester mesh with knit wool, cotton, and elastic; collaboration with designer Gary Graham; photo courtesy Karen Philippi
Los Angeles, CA
Sam Durant combines drawing, sculpture, and sound to create installations that explore the history of modernist art and design, American politics, and the search for social justice. His most recent body of work proposes relocating the monuments to the dead of the American Indian Wars to the Reflecting Pool at the Mall in Washington, D.C. Durant is well known for several projects that explore the relationships among the social and political upheavals of the late 1960s, minimalist art, and modernist furniture and architecture. He teaches at California Institute of the Arts.
Juneau, AK
Anna Brown Ehlers is a Chilkat blanket weaver. Her textiles are hand-woven cedar bark and wool pieces that incorporate totemic clan designs and range from dance leggings, bibs, and vests to full-size blankets. In addition to using traditional cedar bark and wool, Ehlers experiments with silk and gold. She is also dedicated to passing on the traditions and has taught in universities and at Indian youth culture camps and cultural centers, as well as training numerous apprentices. She has demonstrated weaving at museums around the world and currently makes a living exhibiting her craft on cruise ships around Alaska. She has received the Community Spirit Award, an Artist in Business Leadership Fellowship, and a Cultural Capital Fellowship, all from the First Peoples Fund.
Portrait copyright John Hyde, Wild Things Photography
New York, NY
Eiko and Koma have been performing together since 1972. They are known for choreographing intricate and deliberate movement works that combine contemporary dance, performance art, and elements of Japanese Butoh movement. Their works have been presented in venues such as the Japan Society, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Walker Art Center, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Eiko and Koma have collaborated with many other artists and groups, from composers and musicians such as Joseph Jennings and the Kronos Quartet to nonprofessionals such as a group of young Cambodian refugees. They have also been the subject of exhibitions at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art and the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. They are recipients of two Bessies, a 1996 MacArthur Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship, among many other honors, and they received the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2004.
Photo courtesy Yuta Otaker
New York, NY
Eiko and Koma have been performing together since 1972. They are known for choreographing intricate and deliberate movement works that combine contemporary dance, performance art, and elements of Japanese Butoh movement. Their works have been presented in venues such as the Japan Society, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Walker Art Center, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Eiko and Koma have collaborated with many other artists and groups, from composers and musicians such as Joseph Jennings and the Kronos Quartet to nonprofessionals such as a group of young Cambodian refugees. They have also been the subject of exhibitions at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art and the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. They are recipients of two Bessies, a 1996 MacArthur Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship, among many other honors, and they received the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2004.
Photo courtesy Yuta Otaker
Oxford, MS
Beth Ann Fennelly writes poems that reveal her fascination with language, working in a variety of styles—from free verse to Shakespearean sonnets. Since the birth of her child, Fennelly has written poetry and prose works that explore the relationship between mother and infant. She has produced two books of poetry; the first, Open House, won the Kenyon Review Prize and the GLCA New Writers Award and was chosen as a BookSense Top Ten Poetry Pick. She received her MFA from the University of Arkansas in 1998 and is assistant professor of English at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. She has received two NEA Fellowships, the Pushcart Prize, and an Academy of American Poets Prize, among other honors. Her writings have been included in periodicals such as The Kenyon Review, The Bloomsbury Review, and The Oxford American, and her poems have appeared in numerous anthologies, including Best American Poetry(1996, 2005, and 2006 editions).
Great with Child: Letters to a Young Mother, 2006; photo courtesy W. W. Norton
San Diego, CA
Having practiced her craft for more than 50 years, Arline Fisch is one of the most respected jewelry makers in the field. Her work melds jewelry, sculpture, and clothing, and she incorporates the structure of textiles and fiber craft into metal-based pieces that are often inspired by ancient cultures and the natural world. Fisch is the recipient of numerous honors, including an honorary doctorate from Skidmore, a gold medal from the American Craft Council, the Lifetime Achievement Award in Crafts from the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and multiple Fulbright fellowships to travel to Uruguay, Vienna, and Denmark. She has been a trustee of the American Craft Council, a founding member and president of the Society of North American Goldsmiths, and a trustee of the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts and is represented in numerous collections and exhibitions around the world.
Pink & Silver Circles, 2005, machine knit coated copper, silver crochet, and sterling; photo courtesy William Gullette
Seattle, WA
Musician Bill Frisell and cartoonist Jim Woodring have created a number of short animated films exploring the themes of spirituality, the evolution of consciousness, and the contrast between horror and beauty. They have also collaborated on book projects. Frisell is well known among his fellow musicians as a consummate guitarist, composer, and bandleader. He has worked with artists such as Petra Hayden, Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello, John Zorn, and Vernon Reid. His Unspeakable won a Grammy in 2005 for best contemporary jazz album. Jim Woodring is the author of Jim—an illustrated “autojournal” that includes drawings, comics, and stories based on his childhood experiences—and is perhaps best known as the creator of Frank, a wordless cartoon series.
Seattle, WA
Musician Bill Frisell and cartoonist Jim Woodring have created a number of short animated films exploring the themes of spirituality, the evolution of consciousness, and the contrast between horror and beauty. They have also collaborated on book projects. Frisell is well known among his fellow musicians as a consummate guitarist, composer, and bandleader. He has worked with artists such as Petra Hayden, Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello, John Zorn, and Vernon Reid. His Unspeakable won a Grammy in 2005 for best contemporary jazz album. Jim Woodring is the author of Jim—an illustrated “autojournal” that includes drawings, comics, and stories based on his childhood experiences—and is perhaps best known as the creator of Frank, a wordless cartoon series.
Denver, CO
Playwright and director Anthony Garcia served as the executive artistic director of El Centro Su Teatro, an important community-based venue in Denver, beginning in 1989. Garcia’s plays include When Pigs Fly and Men Have Babies, El Sol Que Tu Eres, The Westside Oratorio, I Don’t Speak English Only, and Serafin: Cantos y Lagrimas, among many others. He holds a BA in theater from the University of Colorado at Denver. He has served as the vice chairperson of the board of the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture and has received many honors, including an award from the Rocky Mountain Drama Critics Circle; the Swanee Hunt Individual Leadership Award; the Colorado Council on the Arts Literary Award for Excellence; an NEA/Theater Communications Group Directing Fellowship; the Chicano Literary Award from University of California, Irvine; and the Ovation Award.