Our Story
Art Educators with a Passion
Three Art educators, Lisa Mittler Bradford, Christine Miller, and Jeanette Thompson, who are also devoted artists that work with fiber, have joined forces to create an initiative to bring contemporary fiber arts lessons into art education curriculum.
It started when we were selected as recipients of a scholarship to attend a fiber arts conference hosted by the Surface Design Association in Minneapolis in June 2011. Ten educators from across the U.S. became SDA Scholars and came together for an amazing experience of learning and sharing during Confluence. The grant that funded the SDA Scholars was provided by the Windgate Charitable Foundation. One of the goals SDA had for bringing art educators to the conference was to encourage and support them to bring fibers into their art classrooms. Through this generous grant, the idea for Explore Fiber was born. It was an exciting and life changing experience!
We realized that there was a need for a central, globally accessible resource and decided to create a website that would allow us to connect with other artists and educators. Our mutual passion has turned into an initiative that we are excited to share with the world!
ExploreFiber.com is a free, collective resource for the art educator or fiber enthusiast – a place to expand knowledge and share our love of the fiber arts. With each other’s knowledge and help, we can explore ways to transform fiber into fine art!
The mission of Explore Fiber:
- Explore Fiber promotes fibers as a contemporary fine art material in art education.
- Explore Fiber is a collaborative initiative and resource by and for a community of educators and artists working with fibers through innovative art expressions.
Our initiative fosters a collaborative network that provides:
- quality lessons using fibers as a fine art material
- videos for inspiration and tutorial support
- interviews with fiber artists and art educators
- a blog for communication and dialogue in the broad fiber arts community
- an interactive space to explore fiber arts in the 21st century
You can help us co-create Explore Fiber.
We are actively seeking your ideas, lessons, and stories as a part of this new initiative. We are interested in being involved in conversations with fiber artists and educators who use fibers with their students or in their own artwork. Contribute to the dialogue on our Facebook and Twitter networks. Reach out to us through our Contact Page on this site for more information about how you can be involved.
We are excited about hearing from you! Click here to view a presentation about Explore Fiber.
Explore Fiber is hosted by wphostingninjas.com. Contact: admin@wphostingninjas.com
