Traveling Exhibition Precis
Annet Couwenberg: Sewing Circles
Curated by Lori Rubeling
Organized by Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture, UMBC Baltimore, Maryland
International tour: September, 2022 – January 2025
Exhibition:
Annet Couwenberg: Sewing Circles features a wide range of projects over the past decade which Couwenberg has completed as part of her studio practice and in partnerships with cultural institutions throughout North America and Europe. These projects highlight the expanding technological parameters related to textiles and fabrics and their specific application into the worlds of scientific research, fashion and interior design, and contemporary social issues. The exhibition will explore, in particular, Couwenberg’s depth of research as well as the multiple intersections that are revealed between established disciplines and fields of knowledge. Artist inspired and viewed as one ‘installation’ within each gallery space, Annet Couwenberg: Sewing Circles has been organized to allow viewers to follow Couwenberg’s artistic process on multiple levels and in a non-linear format. The open-ended composition of the exhibition allows for each of Couwenberg’s projects to expose the multiple areas of research which led to their creation.
Publication:
Hardbound, 116-pages, 60 color and black & white images. Texts by Lori Rubeling, Mary Savig, and Caroline Kipp. Typography and graphic design by Kelley Bell. Edited by Antonia Gardner. Distributed internationally by D.A.P., New York. https://www.artbook.com/9780960088539.html
Catalogue essayists:
Mary Savig is the Lloyd Herman Curator of Craft at the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC. Prior to her new position, Mary served as the curator of manuscripts at the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art since 2013. Recent exhibitions include “Ephemeral and Eternal: The Archive of Lenore Tawney” (2019) at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin; and at the Archives, “What is Feminist Art?” (2019). She pursued high-priority collections documenting the history of American studio craft and conducted oral history interviews with Beth Lipman, Preston Singletary and James Tanner.
Caroline Kipp Caroline Kipp is the Curator of Contemporary Art at The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum in Washington, D.C.
Previously, Kipp was the Curatorial Associate in the Department of Contemporary Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston where she was responsible for the contemporary decorative arts collection, including the Daphne Farago collection. She curated the Farago gallery rotations, Jack Bush: Radiant Abstraction, Community Arts Initiative: Mindful Mandalas, and Community Arts Initiative: Endless Feast, co-curated Beyond the Loom: Fiber as Sculpture/Subversive Threads as part of Women Take the Floor and Perception is the Medium.
Lori Rubeling is a faculty member in the School of Design, Theatre and Media Performance Program, and the College of the Humanities at Stevenson University. Previously, she was art director and lead designer for Rubeling & Kain Studios for two decades. Rubeling has collaborated and taught art and design curricula with communities and a variety of educational institutions for over 30 years. Her expertise in design education is entrepreneurial and
interdisciplinary when collaborating with communities as they seek to research, prototype, test or implement communication programs or design projects.
Public programming:
Public programs accompanying Annet Couwenberg: Sewing Circles can feature a public lecture, workshop, or possible short-term residency by the artist. Additional programming initiatives can include public panel discussions with faculty, staff, and visiting artists. As a seasoned educator, Annet would be excited to share new educational methodologies in workshops with faculty and students to create a dialogue about contemporary modalities through creative recontextualization of new and traditional technologies. The exhibition speaks to a variety of concepts, including the intersections of design, craft, and emerging technologies.
Educational and community outreach programming:
Annet Couwenberg: Sewing Circles can feature an extensive K-12 educational outreach initiative with participating schools and after-school programs in the travel venue’s geographical area. A
K-12 curriculum, inspired by the exhibition project, can be introduced over a range of disciplines. The artist is experienced in leading discussions with K-12 audiences.
The artist:
Annet Couwenberg, born in The Netherlands, received a MFA from Cranbrook
Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI and a MFA in Textile Arts from Syracuse University, Syracuse, both in the USA. Couwenberg served as chair of the Fiber department at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD from 1989 until 2008. She has received individual artist awards from the Maryland State and Ohio State Art Councils. Telos Art Publishing published a Monograph of her work in 2003. Her work is in numerous collections, among them the Textiel Museum in Tilburg, The Netherlands. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts, Wilmington, DE; 28th Street Studio, New York,
NY; Contemporary Museum, Baltimore, MD; City Gallery, Atlanta, GA; Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, MD; The Arkansas Art Center, Decorative Arts Museum, Little Rock, AK; Textiel Museum, Tilburg, The Netherlands. Couwenberg’s work has been reviewed and featured by the Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, City Paper, The Atlanta Constitution, Philadelphia Inquirer, Fiberarts. NO (Nouvel Object), Surface Design and Sculpture Magazine.
Specifications:
Organizing Institution: Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture, University of
Maryland, Baltimore County (CADVC) is a non-profit organization dedicated to organizing comprehensive exhibitions, publishing books and visual media, and devising educational and community outreach projects.
CADVC’s traveling exhibition program has brought exhibitions to prominent national and international venues, including the Studio Museum in Harlem (New York), Andy Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh), Akademie der Künste (Berlin), Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (San Francisco), Barbican Centre (London), International Center of Photography (New York), De Appel (Amsterdam), and The National History Museum, Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC). Its publishing program produces publications within the areas of visual arts, material culture, art history, criticism, theory, and graphic design. CADVC books are distributed internationally through D.A.P. | Distributed Art Publishers, New York. http://www.umbc.edu/cadvc/
Curator: Lori Rubeling
Total number of artworks: 42
- 15 Sculptures
- 7-12 Channels of video
- 10 Wall-mounted textile panels
- 5 Printable vinyl wallpapers (optional, site-specific)
Total suggested square feet: 3,000 – 5,000 Total suggested running feet: 200 – 500 Approximate crate storage square feet: 100 Rental fee: $10,000
Crating, shipping, and storage fee: one-way shipping fee to be paid by travel venue, plus prorated crating, storage, and dispersal costs (not to exceed $10,000).
Security and insurance requirements: Certificate of insurance for the full value of the exhibition, and adequate security and supervision of exhibition and art handling, per the contract.
Availability: May 2023 – January 2025
Catalog: Annet Couwenberg: Sewing Circles contains newly commissioned essays by Lori Rubeling, Mary Savig, and Caroline Kipp. Hardcover: 9 x 12 in., 116 pages, 60 color and B/W illustrations. Distributed by D.A.P. (Distributed Art Publishers, New York).
Contact: Sandra Abbott, Curator of Collections and Outreach Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture
University of Maryland, Baltimore County 1000 Hilltop Circle, 105 Fine Arts Building Baltimore, MD 21250
Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture Traveling Exhibition Precis 2023.05.22
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Categories: Traveling Exhibitions