Silent Art Auction Preserves Weaving and its Traditions for Emerging Artists

Boston, Mass. (January 31, 2019)—On Friday, February 8, United South End Settlements (USES) will co-sponsor a silent art auction and reception from 5:30 –7:30 p.m., featuring a fiber arts exhibition - The Theresa Show - to raise funds for the Theresa-India Young Ethnic Weaving Scholarship at Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

The Theresa Show exhibition is free and runs from February 9 – March 29. Visitors can view works by emerging and established artists including: Stacy Arman, Geraldine Barney, Malika Crichlow, Eleanor Elkin, Judith P. Felton, Hetty Friedman, Paul Harrington, Lahyla Hyppolite, Patricia McSweeney, David Mynott II, Selena Narovlansky, Jeffrey Nowlin, Rachel C. Oswald, Salomé Deta Pitts, Etta M. Rosen, Susan G. Thompson, Johnetta Tinker and Karen A. Weinhaus.

Each artist is donating a portion of their proceeds from the silent auction sales to the scholarship. The show also includes special donations from fellow artists and friends Paul Goodnight and Reginald L. Jackson, Ph.D.

2018/19 scholarship recipient Zoë Barbano-Grinder’s observation that weaving a teal/green warp and light pink weft turned into grey started her work in color theory. Judith Leemann, MassArt Fibers program faculty, says “Zoë has excelled in her color theory and possesses the widest understanding of all the properties of color.” Gilda Sharp-Etteh, instructor of Drawing, Painting and Art History at Roxbury Community College and Theresa-India Young’s former colleague, commented that “Zoë’s work aptly demonstrates a thorough understanding of mixing to obtain the tertiary colors.” Zoë will display her work as part of the show.

Jacqueline L. McRath, Young’s friend and scholarship committee chair reminisces about Young’s Artist-in-Residency at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. “It was there that she immersed herself in research on natural colors derived from plants and all of their properties.”

Tapestry weaver and writer Micala Sidore, of the Hawley Street Tapestry Studio, viewed Young’s and scholarship recipients' work in the MassArt inaugural show at the Thompson Gallery and loved it. "That Theresa saw herself as a 'weaving griot' is just right. She was the story teller - both in her teaching and in her work- inspiring her students and covering many cultures. Weaving can be a non-written language, something that Young understood all too well,” said Sidore. "I find it terrific that Young shared the historical and cultural background" of Ikat, Kente, backstrap, European Tapestry and Navaho weavings with all of her students and audiences. Sidore also commented that the scholarship recipients’ weaving work on view shows high ability and imagination. “I find it very moving to see how that broad range of cultures works its way into the students’ work,” she said. “Emma Welty's Orphan Rug, for instance, shows care and the ways that familial roots can trigger ideas. Impressive!”

The Theresa-India Young Scholarship Committee’s goal is to raise $25,000 to endow the scholarship, thus realizing Theresa’s dream that weaving remain prominent in the fiber community as a means of sharing culture, skills, and practices. The committee aims to raise $1,000 from the sale of raffle tickets at the event. Bidding is open on all art until March 29. Tax deductible donations to the scholarship can be made through the GIVE section of the MassArt website: massart.edu/galleries/frances-euphemia-thompson.

Viewing hours for The Theresa Show exhibition (February 9 – March 29) are 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. daily at the Harriet Tubman Gallery, located at 566 Columbus Ave. in Boston’s South End, located at the corner of Massachusetts Ave. The venue is wheelchair accessible. Public transportation is available: take the Orange Line to the Mass Ave T stop or the #1 and #43 buses. Limited meter parking is also available in the area.

For more information, please visit United South End Settlements’ website at www.uses.org, or contact Colleen George, Director of Development at 617-375-8143.

Exhibit-goers may also be interested in visiting Theresa’s archival collection at University Archives and Special Collections in the Joseph P. Healey Library at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

About United South End Settlements

United South End Settlements (USES) offers programs that holistically support families in achieving economic mobility. USES helps parents and caregivers develop their own capacity to reach their goals, increase their income and assets, and connect with new networks of people through one-on-one coaching and a workforce development program which prepares participants for administrative work as a first step on a career pathway. For children and youth, USES provides quality education and enrichment opportunities that foster personal development and social-emotional skills such as perseverance, communication, teamwork, and problem-solving. Each summer, USES’ Camp Hale serves over 225 boys and girls, ages 6-17 years, with the goal of improving their sense of well-being, social skills, and awareness of personal potential. USES believes that as families increase their income and assets, become more resilient and connect to a diverse network, they and their children are more likely to develop the necessary skills to achieve their goals and disrupt the cycle of poverty. For more information about USES, please visit www.uses.org.

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