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The Textile area is part of the Department of Design in the School of Fine Arts at the University of Kansas. The Design Department is housed in the Art & Design Building on the main campus.
The 100,000 square foot facility is home to both the KU Art and Design Departments. Together the departments have approximately 50 faculty, teaching an average of 900 students in a comprehensive visual arts program. The building maintains shared facilities including a large exhibition gallery, photo services, a computer lab, and a complete woodshop.
The Textile area offers a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts in Textiles/Fibers.
Undergraduate courses include a range of weaving, surface design, three dimensional textiles and history of textiles. Classes are also offered each year in textile design for industry.
The Textile Design program offers students an opportunity to select from two different areas of emphasis:
The B.F.A. program requires 124 hours of university credit including at least 69 credit hours in Art & Design. After one year of basic design and drawing courses (12 credit hours), students enter their major areas. The textile program offers over 39 credit hours of coursework in the textile major area alone.
Other electives can include any other area offered in the Art and Design Departments (metals, ceramics, photography, printmaking, painting and drawing, sculpture, interior design, graphics and illustration, industrial design etc.). The Textile Area currently has approximately 60 undergraduate student majors.
Graduates might choose from several different career options, such as designing for the textile industry, or designing, producing and marketing art fabrics and/or functional pieces (i.e. garments), home furnishings, rugs, table linens, et cetera. Some will pursue additional education through a Master of Fine Arts degree and perhaps teach in a university/college fibers program.
The M.F.A. degree is an individualized studio program with relatively few required classes. The course of study is essentially tutorial in that the student works with various faculty members on an appointment basis to develop his or her artwork.
The 60 credit hour M.F.A. program is usually completed in three years. The program culminates with a thesis exhibition of the student’s work in the Art & Design Gallery in the Art & Design Building.
The Textile area has between four and six graduate students at a time. Each student has a strong art and textile background from undergraduate work, comes to KU with a strong desire to learn and grow, and questions his or her artwork, pushing off into new directions.
For more information about the MFA in Textile Design, click here.
Two full-time faculty members are devoted to the Textile Area. Associate Professor Mary Anne Jordan teaches all levels of the surface design courses. Assistant Professor David Brackett teaches all levels of the weaving courses. Both instructors are actively involved with undergraduate and graduate students on a regular basis.
With degrees in textiles/fiber from the University of Michigan (B.F.A.), and Cranbrook Academy of Art (M.F.A.), Professor Mary Anne Jordan has shown her work nationally and internationally in the US, France, Japan, and Canada. She has taught various summer workshops at Haystack, Arrowmont, Penland, and Split Rock. She continues to be active making and exhibiting her surface design work. She has taught at KU since 1986.
Professor David Brackett joined the KU faculty in 2002. With degrees from the University of Michigan (B.S.) and the University of Kansas (M.F.A.), Brackett has also taught at Clarion College in Pennsylvania and Skidmoore College in New York. His work is exhibited internationally and nationally as well.
The textile area includes two large weaving studios, a screenprinting studio, a computer lab, dye-room, classroom space, a large communal studio for Seniors, and a "Resource Room." The Resource Room is organized and maintained by students and it houses all of the community tools, a yarn supply, light tables and other small equipment available for student use.
There are about 30 Macomber floor looms ranging from four to sixteen harnesses and ranging in width from twenty-four to sixty inches. There are two forty-eight inch AVL computerized looms. The screenprinting studio is equipped with five print tables (4 1/2' x 16'), a large exposure unit for photo screen exposure, and a screenwashing room equipped with a power washer. An additional classroom has another 5-6 smaller (4’x8’) print tables. The dye-room has a large sink with a ventilation hood, commercial gas burners, stovetop fabric steamers, and washer and dryer.
Senior level Textile Area majors share a large studio space that is for their use only (not to be shared with other undergraduate classes). Every graduate student is provided with a private and secure studio area.
To contact Professors Mary Anne Jordan and David Brackett, call 785-864-4401 or e-mail majordan@ku.edu or brackett@ku.edu.
We encourage interested students to visit our studios and meet with the faculty and current undergraduate and graduate students.
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The University of Kansas School of Fine Arts Lawrence, KS 66045 785/864-3421 |
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