Fiber art is thriving in Minnesota, and the field’s growth as an artistic discipline now includes the McKnight Artist Fellowships Program, which provides two $25,000 fellowships to be awarded each year to individual midcareer fiber artists living and working in Minnesota.

In addition to the $25,000 unrestricted award and public recognition in support of their studio work and practice, McKnight Fiber Artist Fellows receive:

• Critiques/studio visits with curators and critics from the field.
• Exhibition at the end of the fellowship period in the galleries at Textile Center.
• Professional photographic documentation of work at the end of the fellowship period.
• Participation in a public discussion that features fellows and an invited critic or curator.
• Professional development support, such as attending conferences, workshops, and marketing advice for their work; plus consultation sessions from artist career consultants at Springboard for the Arts on topics of your choice.
• Participation in a 1 – 2 week artist residency in partnership with McKnight and Artist Communities Alliance.
• Membership to Textile Center and access to Textile Center’s resources, including library of more than 32,000 books and periodicals, state-of-the-art dye lab, and artisan shop opportunities.

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 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 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 $2.8 million per year to its statewide fellowships. To learn more about McKnight Artist Fellowships, visit: mcknight.org/artistfellowships.

ABOUT THE MCKNIGHT FOUNDATION

The McKnight Foundation, a Minnesota-based family foundation, advances a more just, creative, and abundant future where people and planet thrive. Established in 1953, the McKnight Foundation is deeply committed to advancing climate solutions in the Midwest; building an equitable and inclusive Minnesota; and supporting the arts in Minnesota, neuroscience, and international crop research. mcknight.org

A focus on racial equity is at the heart of the McKnight approach to funding. Along with Textile Center, our organizations value diversity and equity, seeking to be inclusive and accessible to all applicants. We welcome and encourage applications from artists representing diverse cultural perspectives.

Marjorie Fedyszyn, 2023 McKnight Fiber Artist Fellow

Order from Chaos, Marjorie Fedyszyn

For years, Marjorie Fedyszyn believed that her art embodied the tension between restraint, power, and control she was convinced she had. Loss, shame, and trauma have shaped who she is. Her work in abstract sculpture and installation expresses this, distilled down to the universal experience of loss and human vulnerability. As her life shifts and things open up, her work and creative practice continue to evolve.

Textiles have become Fedyszyn’s fundamental language in creating the body + emotional stand-ins that represent significant life events in her work. Through the exploration of new materials and techniques including handmade paper, wet felted wool, and hand stitching on fabric, abstract sculptural forms become a way of interpreting the past to help her understand it more objectively. The springboard to studio practice has its origins in felt making, her medium of choice for many years. Of the beginning of her fiber art practice Fedyszyn says, “The magical metamorphosis of manipulating wool fibers was a bridge that led to working in sculptural forms. In 2017, I discovered a dynamic material and source of inspiration in abaca paper and papermaking. For the past five years, I have focused on the stripped down nature of abaca paper, which has enabled me to concentrate on form and content.” The inherent structural properties of abaca fiber–ephemeral, resilient, and unpredictable–include the potential for uncontrolled shrinkage during the drying process. Used in casting and sculptural relief, there is at present a sparseness in the work and a range of outcomes that have given way to new ideas and means of exploration.

Fedyszyn’s lengthy career as a scenic artist, along with a degree in theater design, also influences her process and provides a solid foundation for experimentation and exploration. This former career necessitated flexibility and the ability to utilize a broad range of materials and techniques for problem solving. Being trained in the illusion of theater, she draws on any number of principles to mine meaning. Tension, suspension, and wonder are just a few that have come into play throughout her recent work.

Numerous public installations have been a means of lending a voice to others and creating space for stories to be told. Fedyszyn finds that the content of much of her work elicits the feeling of shared weight with her viewers, and bearing this weight unites her with an audience. In experiencing her work, viewers are prompted to share their own stories with her. “As I work through the palpable tensions the world presents, the act of creating renders it bearable and helps to unpack emotions in a physical way,” says Fedyszyn. “The tactile, rigorous and meditative physicality of art making helps me meaningfully discharge the residue of the past through my hands.” New discoveries and occurrences that impact her continue to propel the work forward, as things continue to shift and appear in unexpected ways.

For more on Marjorie’s work, visit marjoriefedyszyn.com

Restraint

Flow

Echo Chambers

Delina White, 2023 McKnight Fiber Artist Fellow

Delina White is a Native apparel designer, beadwork artist, and Indigenous materials jewelry maker and has been making heirloom beadwork, apparel, and accessories for as long as she can remember. She is an enrolled member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe and lives in her hereditary homeland on the lake shore of Agency Bay in the village of Old Agency (Onigum) on the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota.

White’s work combines functionality with decoration and global influences to honor time, place, and culture. Using materials rich in texture, natural and handmade, and designs that incorporate meaningful symbols that define the diversification of landscape, she combines contemporary with traditional style to make wearable art founded in the traditional designs of the Great Lakes Woodland Anishinaabeg.

My artwork is built on the traditional philosophy of living a good life: traditional values rooted in the belief of love for oneself, human kind, and our mother Earth. Art is a way to wear the pride, dignity, and distinction of the original Great Lakes and Woodlands people. This life work is a way to communicate the values and beliefs of the original people of the Great Lakes Woodlands as an intergenerational cultural knowledge keeper, passing tradition to me from my grandmother and her grandmother before her.

Artists are the history keepers, having documented societal events since the beginning of time. We provide inspiration to motivate change, bringing awareness to thrive for a better world. In my work, apparel design and fashion accessories become a narrative to assert equity rights, the need to protect sacred sites, build a sustainable environment, and to show cultural pride as sovereign nations.

Using natural objects for personal adornment is part of the indigenous culture and tradition. Through the designs and materials used in making art, songs and dances, clothing and jewelry, we show respect for the environment and beliefs instilled by our ancestors. Making beautiful jewelry and clothing is one way we honor the gifts given to us by the Creator; it is an expression of creativity of who we are as people.  It is the way we say, “I am Anishinaabe.”

The world of the Great Lakes, the largest body of freshwater in the world, has a unique lifeway specific to the people who live within its shores. For White, this world is a source of endless inspiration in its variations of extremes–freezing cold, snow and northern lights in the winter, rain and thunder storms in the spring, strong winds and bold autumn colors in the fall, with the brief summer months filled with heat and splendid sunrises and sunsets. “The Anishinaabeg possess tremendous respect and appreciation for all of nature’s forces and Spirit elements”, says White.

Beyond the inspiration and significance of place, working with community has been essential to her practice. Of her accountability to this, she states, “My goal is to advocate the importance of arts programming throughout Minnesota and beyond, to tap into the talents and grow business skills of Native artists and work with youth in creative placemaking to build self-confidence in identity for healthy communities. It is my responsibility to preserve the ancestral knowledge and share to advance what artists envision for themselves and our communities.

For more on Delina White’s work, visit iamanishinaabe.com

Red Winter Jacket Skirt

Woodland Basket Weave Dress