THE IMPORTANCE OF MEMBERS
Twenty-three years ago, Maine Fiberarts was started to nurture Maine's fiber community. This included the artists and craftspeople making work, the farmers raising fiber animals and producing goods, and the instructors, collectors, curators, and shopkeepers who bring work to the public. From raw material provider through finished art maker, we envisioned this group as one thriving community, and worked to support them through tour maps, newsletters, websites, referrals, slide talks, studio visits, gallery exhibitions, publications, and our beautiful Center/Gallery.
In turn, members of this community, and especially, members of our organization, nurture us. They participate in events, classes, gallery talks and gatherings. They lend artwork to our exhibits and presentations. They visit our shows and spend time sharing their creativity and ideas, and bring us recommendations of people and places to discover. And they give financially so that we may thrive.
If you read these newsletters, visit our gallery, check our websites, are located on our Tour Maps, are listed in our Learning Guide, or value highlighting this community, please join Maine Fiberarts and continue the circle. We appreciate you.
Pictured above: a detail of one yard of silk purchased at Mood Fabrics in NYC; below: a crocheted blanket found in the home of a neighbor.
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MEMBERSHIP AND MATCHING MONTH
June is membership month when we invite new members to join, encourage current members to renew, and ask everyone to sign up new friends. This year, all new memberships and additional donations will be matched, dollar for dollar, by two generous donors who believe strongly in our mission.
To those who have already become members this year, thank you! Now that we have this new match, please consider making a further donation that would be doubled.
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Pictured above: "The History of the Town of York, Maine," hooked work by Faith Webster; and "Rescue at Sea" and "Summer at the Lake," hooked work by Grace Collette. The latter two will be on view in our June/July exhibit. All were discovered at a meeting of Seacoast Ruggers of York this Spring.
YOUR MEMBERSHIP AT WORK
Here are nine ways your memberships and donations have been put to use recently:
- We have begun interviewing new artists and commemorating lost elders for our “Story of Fiber Art in Maine During the Past Half Century as Told by the Artists.”
- You supported Maine Fiberarts generously throughout two-plus years of a pandemic, as we worked behind the scenes in our Center/Gallery to keep on keeping on.
- Two knockout exhibits were mounted during 2021 just as soon as we could safely reopen: “Fiber in Form” and “Fabulous Fabric.” These two shows alone exhibited work by 47 artists.
- A beautiful presentation with original photos was created for master rug braider and octogenarian Nancy Young to present to the Valley Forge Rug Braiding Guild.
- Hundreds of people seeking to sell or donate used equipment and materials were referred to Fiber Frolic, Belfast Fiberarts, Maine College of Art, PortFiber, area schools and libraries, and other online resources.
- We persevered until we found support to create a new “Fiber Art Tour to Western Maine,” which we are at work on now. We also brainstormed a fabulous new format for a printed piece to accompany online material.
- We have sold and/or shipped over 100 copies of our “Guide to Learning Fiber Art,” thus far, through our Online Art Shop while making a PDF available for free. The Guide includes 100 people and places that teach the fiber arts in Maine.
- Plans are coming together for a new exhibit of members' work for this coming June/July 2022 on the theme of “home” and “childhood memories" and we are gathering up great work! Stay tuned!
- Many connections were made to benefit Maine Fiberarts' members: Partnering with Monson Arts, we sent three lucky members to their beautiful art school in Monson to enjoy free tuition, room and board; partnering with Surface Design Association, we showed images of members work over Zoom; working with Maine Craft Association, recommended member artists who teach for their Haystack Weekend; and working with the famous international Rug Hooking Week at Sauder Village, we suggested makers who braid, hook, and punch for their 2022 August conference.
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Click left to right: Our Online Art Shop and our Fiber Folio website.
DO YOU KNOW MAINE FIBERARTS?
We have almost 2000 names in our newsletter mailing list and suspect some of our newer readers aren't familiar with what we have done for fiber during the past several years. You can find several pages of archived gallery exhibitions we have hosted over the years, a 10-year list of emailed newsletters we have created and sent. Lastly, and pictured above are links to our Online Art Shop (might be the last chance to see current items before it is updated during the upcoming exhibition), and our Fiber Folio website where we post stories of our outreach visiting and photographing for our Story of Fiber project.
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