The fiber department at KCAI combines traditional and experimental practices to provide students with technical and conceptual training. You will have opportunities to explore contemporary issues in art and design within the context of a working studio environment. In addition to core courses in fiber, the KCAI fiber curriculum offers courses in Jacquard weaving, costume design, textile design and fashion knitwear.
Fiber as a medium crosses boundaries and interfaces with art, design, craft and technology. Inherently multi-disciplinary, the field of fiber encompasses painting, printing, dyeing, pattern design, sewing, experimental fashion and costume design, weaving, knitting, crochet, basketry techniques, felting, spinning and papermaking.
Emphasis in this medium is on skill development and the generation of ideas through a materials-based process of making. Interest in greener, more sustainable practices and recent technological advances expand the field to include such areas as architectural textiles, interactive textiles, electronic textiles and smart textiles.
Pauline Verbeek-Cowart, professor and chair of fiber
Pauline Verbeek-Cowart, a native of the Netherlands, received her B.F.A. degree (1982) in fine art from the Maryland Institute and her M...Read More
Pauline Verbeek-Cowart, a native of the Netherlands, received her B.F.A. degree (1982) in fine art from the Maryland Institute and her M.F.A. degree in textile design from the University of Kansas (1995). After teaching at KU, she joined the faculty of the Kansas City Art Institute, where she has been developing the area of constructed textiles since 1997. She was on the board of the Surface Design Association and coordinated two (2000 and 2003) textile conferences, which took place on the campus of the Kansas City Art Institute. She is one of the leaders in the use of new technologies in hand-weaving and is actively researching Jacquard applications using industrial looms in The Netherlands and the US.
Most of her weavings span several feet in both directions and comment on the nature of woven surfaces. Through structure, material, image and/or surface treatments, she demonstrates that weaving is unique in building an image. Her industrially woven work crosses boundaries between Fine Art and applied textiles and is directed toward structurally textured fabrics for apparel as well as home-furnishings. Her work has been exhibited extensively in both national and international venues including France, Germany, Japan and Korea.
She is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including the Kansas City Art Institute's Excellence in Teaching award (2007) and most recently the 2008 Kansas Arts Commission Master Fellowship. Her work is in private and corporate collections and has been featured in books and publications such as Fiberarts Design Book, American Craft Magazine, Fiberarts Magazine, Surface Design Journal, Shuttle Spindle & Dyepot and Textileforum.
Kim Eichler-Messmer received her M.F.A. in textiles from the University of Kansas in 2007 and her B.F.A. in drawing and printmaking from...Read More
Kim Eichler-Messmer received her M.F.A. in textiles from the University of Kansas in 2007 and her B.F.A. in drawing and printmaking from Iowa State University in 2002. She was an artist in residence at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tenn., in 2007-2008. Her work has been exhibited nationally in shows such as Quilt Visions 2008 in San Diego, Art Quilts Elements in Wayne, Pa., and Fiber National 2007 in Lancaster, Pa.
Her large- and small-scale quilts for the wall are hand dyed and screen-printed. Her work is inspired by patterns and repetition in the natural world, in architecture, in music, in the routine of daily life and in the ebb and flow of time. Repeated imagery, frayed edges, translucent overlays and hand stitching are standard elements in her work.
Tracy Krumm's work has been exhibited internationally in numerous galleries and museums, including the Central Museum of Textiles in...Read More
Tracy Krumm's work has been exhibited internationally in numerous galleries and museums, including the Central Museum of Textiles in Lodz, Poland; the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague; the Odder Museum in Denmark; the Museum of Art and Design in New York; the Denver Art Museum; the Susquehanna Art Museum in Harrisburg, Pa.; The Museum of Fine Art in Santa Fe, N.M.; the Kohler Art Center in Sheboygan, Wis.; The Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art; Andrea Schwartz Gallery in San Francisco; Lemmons Contemporary in New York; Linda Durham Contemporary Art in Santa Fe, N.M.; Robischon Gallery in Denver; and Cervini Haas in Scottsdale, Ariz.
From 2006 to 2008, she served as a visiting assistant professor of art and design at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. Prior to this, she was a lecturer at KCAI from 2003 to 2006 in the fiber department, and since 1991 she has taught numerous workshops at venues such as Haystack in Deer Isle, Maine; the Penland School in Penland, N.C., Arrowmont in Gatlinburg, Tenn.; and Anderson Ranch, in Snowmass, Colo. She has been a guest artist and lecturer at numerous institutions such as the Cranbrook Academy of Art, the Memphis College of Art, the California College of the Arts, the University of California at Santa Cruz and the University of Montana in Missoula. She has been awarded residencies by Pyramid Atlantic in Silver Spring, Md.; the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, N.M.; and the State of New York at ArtPark.
Krumm completed her B.F.A. with high distinction at the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1987 and received her M.F.A. in visual arts from Vermont College in 1995. Her work has been featured in numerous publications including Metalsmith, Sculpture, American Craft, Fiberarts, Surface Design Journal and Textile Forum magazines and resides in many private and corporate collections including Bloomingdale's, the Museum of Art and Design in New York, the Denver Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts of New Mexico, the Clorox Corporation and Ford Motor Company. Four of her site specific large scale textile-based installations, made with the help of public participants as part of "Big Fiber: Human Tools," were installed in 2007 and 2008 at The Museums of New Mexico's Milner Plaza and the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, N.M.
Alison Heryer is an interdisciplinary artist whose work combines costume, performance, installation and community engagement. ...Read More
Alison Heryer is an interdisciplinary artist whose work combines costume, performance, installation and community engagement.
Heryer's collaborative work as a costume designer for theatre, film and print has been exhibited in venues, festivals and galleries across the globe, including Austin Museum of Modern Art; DODGE Gallery in New York; 808 Gallery in Boston; ZACH Theatre in Austin, Texas; Redmoon Theater in Chicago; Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago; The New Victory Theater in New York; and the Prague Quadrennial Exhibition of Performance Design and Space.
She is the co-founder of the nomadic dream project, an ongoing series of performance events that use costumed characters to transform people’s experience and perception of public spaces from their daily routine. Her self-produced events often explore narratives and intersections between found environments and the clothed form.
Heryer received an M.F.A. degree in theatrical design from The University of Texas at Austin and a B.F.A. degree in fashion design and history from Washington University in St. Louis. Recent recognitions include the Michael Philippi Emerging Designer Award in Chicago and the Austin Critics Table Award for Costume Design.
Erika Lynne Hanson’s practice holds the act of weaving at its core, yet takes the shape of installations that emphasize the...Read More
Erika Lynne Hanson’s practice holds the act of weaving at its core, yet takes the shape of installations that emphasize the relationships of objects. The situations that are posed ask the viewer to question perceived expectations of stability. The ephemerality of an object is highlighted be it a plank of cedar, a potted succulent, or a bit of woven yarn.
Hanson recently received her M.F.A. degree from California College of the Arts, and holds a B.F.A. degree in fiber from KCAI. Her work has been exhibited at various San Francisco Bay area venues, and she currently has a studio residency through the Urban Culture Project.
Peggy Noland began her academic career studying religious studies at Rockhurst University in Kansas City, but soon changed her mind to...Read More
Peggy Noland began her academic career studying religious studies at Rockhurst University in Kansas City, but soon changed her mind to pursue a decidedly different discipline: fashion.
For the last four years and counting, the self-taught designer sells her avant garde but playful line of clothing in her boutique, Peggy Noland Kansas City, located in the heart of Kansas City's Crossroads art district. Her store's environment is worth the trip alone, as visitors will find themselves engulfed in a giant cheeseburger, on a bed of poly-fill clouds or amidst giant green hands with hit pink fingernails depending on that month's installation. She is recognized as a leader in Kansas City's creative community. Pitch awarded Peggy a Mastermind Award in 2006, and she's a recipient of a Lighton International Artist Exchange Program grant.
Noland is consistently costuming collaboratively with Kansas City's own, SSION and Whoop Dee Doo, both headed by KCAI alumni.Although Noland is a fixture in her city's art scene, her clothing is also widely recognized outside of the Kansas City scope. National publications including The New York Times, Spin, Rolling Stone, Nylon, Missbehave, Lucky and XLR8R and international publications like Japanese Elle, British Elle, WWD, WGSN and Dazed and Confused have featured Noland's pieces. Her work will be published in three books in fall 2010. Noland was invited to lecture during Hallmark Cards Color Week for the Trends Department, and has had pop-up shops in Berlin and New York. In September 2010, Noland showed her latest collection during New York Fashion Weekand exhibited at New York's The Hole gallery.
She maintains her largest clientele in Moscow and Tokyo via her retail website, peggynoland.com, and dresses a number of musicians - including Beth Ditto of the Gossip, Fischerspooner, Peaches, CSS and Tilly and the Wall.
Noland's clothing is featured in the video below in which Tilly and the Wall sing the ABCs on Sesame Street.
Noland designed the clothing worn by CSS in the Nike commercial below.
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