Midwest Symposium to Feature Mary Kelly

MIDWEST SYMPOSIUM MAY 19, 2011 in MADISON, WI

Our Midwest Symposium with the theme Art and Inspired Scholarship is scheduled for Thurs. May 19, 2011,  in Madison, Wisconsin.

The keynote speaker at this event is Mary B. Kelly, textile expert and artist, who will present a 7:30 p.m. lecture entitled Goddess. Women. Cloth: Inspired Ritual Textiles from Around the World. This evening lecture will feature slides and hands-on experience with the textiles.

Embroidered Goddess, Norway

Within folk cultures across the world, women make textiles, inspired by goddesses, then use them in rituals to honor their deities, contact spirits or protect their families and communities.

In some areas these traditions continue today. This presentation features an overview of the textiles in the context of history, rituals and religious beliefs. Kelly explores cultures worldwide: Siberia, China and the Far East, India, Central and South East Asia, Eastern, Northern and Central Europe, Greece and the Balkans, Africa and the Americas, sharing her extensive knowledge and research on local textile traditions.

Embroidered Goddess from Eastern Europe

Mary B. Kelly is Professor Emerita at Tompkins Cortland Community College, an affiliate of the State University of New York, and holds advanced degrees from Syracuse University and the Rhode Island School of Design. She has published numerous books and articles in the United States and abroad, notably in Folk Dress in Europe and Anatolia, ed. L. Welters (1999 ); Making and Using Ritual Cloth ( 2004 ); Goddess Embroideries of the Northlands ( 2009 ); Kaspaikka Muistiilina ( Memory Cloth); ed. L. Sappi (2010); and Goddesses in World Culture, ed. P. Monaghan (2010).

Kelly’s research has been supported by several Fulbright grants, and recent articles have appeared in such textile publications as PieceworkNeedle Arts,Bunad, and Vesterheim. She served as guest curator of the exhibition “Sacred Symbols, Ceremonial Cloth” at the Vesterheim Norwegian American Museum in Decorah, IA (2009). She has lectured at the Smithsonian Institution and the Textile Museum, in Washington, DC, the Mingei Museum of Folk Art,The Czech and Slovak Museum, the Ukrainian Museum, and at Oslo University, Norway.

Kelly makes her home on Hilton Head Island, SC, where she teaches, exhibits and maintains a painting/weaving studio.  Learn more about her art and books at marykellystudio.

Mary Kelly keynote: Goddesses. Women. Cloth.

Goddesses.  Women.  Cloth: Mary Kelly To Give Keynote Address at ASWM Midwest Symposium

Ebroidered Goddess, Norway

ASWM is excited to present its 2011 Midwest Symposium Thursday, May 19, 2011 in Madison, Wisconsin. The keynote speaker at this event is Mary B. Kelly, textile expert and artist, who will present a 7:30 p.m. lecture entitled Goddess. Women. Cloth: Inspired Ritual Textiles from Around the World. This evening lecture will feature slides and hands-on experience with the textiles.

Within folk cultures across the world, women make textiles, inspired by goddesses, and use them in rituals to honor their deities, contact spirits or protect their families and communities.

In some areas these traditions continue today. This presentation features an overview of the textiles in the context of history, rituals and religious beliefs. Kelly explores cultures worldwide: Siberia, China and the Far East, India, Central and South East Asia, Eastern, Northern and Central Europe, Greece and the Balkans, Africa and the Americas, sharing her extensive knowledge and research on local textile traditions.

Image Archive for Educational Use

If you are frequently searching for images from art history or archaeological sites, you might want to add California State University’s WorldImages site to your bookmarks.  This site contains more than 80,000 images which you are free to use for non-profit educational purposes, provided that you credit the copyright holders of those images.  The database began as a collection used for teaching a survey art history course, but it has grown to include images appropriate for all grade levels.

The photo above is an example of an image relevant to our ongoing exploration of bee imagery.  Here’s the copyright information provided in WorldImages:

Silver Tetradrachm. Bee. Ephesos.
390 BCE-340 BCE
Silver
Struck
Greek Classical
Ephesus. Turkey.
New York. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
©Kathleen Cohen

East Symposium on (R)Evolution Blog

Lisa Paul Streitfeld, who presented a paper in Philadelphia on “The Embodied Goddess in 21st Century Art,” took some beautiful photos of the event and posted them to her thought provoking blog.  Check it out: (R)Evolution!  Catalyzing the Zeitgeist. And, see a clip of an interview with Lisa talking about the necessity for the emergence of women’s creative energy.

If you attended and took pictures, please let us know and we will be happy to post them as we have space!

The City of Sisterly Love: A report from the Philadelphia Symposium

by Dr. Miranda Shaw, keynote presenter

What an amazing organization and conference series ASWM has created.  I experienced the weekend by presenting as well as attending panels and performances.

My talk began with an exploration of how Buddhist women in Nepal embody Vasundhara, earth mother and goddess of abundance and wisdom.  I showed slides of rituals that invoke their identity with the golden goddess.  I could see that both the words and images were going deep.  The women present were also enchanted by the Kumari tradition, in which young girls embody the female Buddha Vajrayogini.  Talk about a receptive audience!  Beyond receptive—hungering and thirsting for knowledge of goddesses and women’s religion.

My mother Merry Norris spoke and showed slides in the next panel.  She not only showed her own mandala and goddess paintings, but those of her students, many of whom had never picked up a paintbrush before, commenting on the healing and transformations that were associated with various artworks, as women went through a particular challenge or life transition.

Merry Norris’ colorful cutouts inspire creativity

The images are so obviously empowered and empowering.  Many archetypal goddess images come through, even when women have had no direct exposure, and that was apparent in the slides.  One of her central themes was a difference she sees between ‘recovery’ and ‘transformation.’

The discussion afterward was great: how do we draw on goddess imagery and stories to transform our consciousness and lives.  One woman raised a concern about a tendency she sees—not in the speakers but more broadly in our culture—for women/feminists to turn the spiritual growth process into a kind of self-help therapy.  Entirely focused on self-improvement, this becomes another, albeit subtler, form of disempowerment, of never being good enough, never ‘arriving.’

The next panel I attended was on creativity, where Leesa Sklovar-Filgate talked about her work that combines psychotherapy, music therapy, and working with the Cetacean Society to find and save ‘lone’ whales that have become separated from their pods.  Continue reading “The City of Sisterly Love: A report from the Philadelphia Symposium”