
Our fiber arts facilities include a surface design studio, two weaving studios, a dye kitchen, a papermaking studio, and more.
Fibers Faculty & Administrators within the Fine Arts 3D Department
As a Fibers student at MassArt, you will experience a diverse array of courses that focus on the rich possibilities of understanding fibers in relation to other disciplines such as sculpture, performance, and installation. You will be encouraged to make personally meaningful connections between traditional approaches to fiber and contemporary developments in the field.
Conversations around environmental and cultural sustainability are an essential part of our Fibers curriculum.Jenine Shereos Program Area Chair, Fibers
Our fiber arts facilities include a surface design studio, two weaving studios, a dye kitchen, a papermaking studio, and more.
“Zainab Sumu’s woven fiber sculptures at Gurari Collections look chaotic — worlds barely held together as their components loop and veer.
“The Cambridge artist, born in Sierra Leone and educated at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, is also creative director and founder of a couture design company, Zainab Sumu Primitive Modern. A handful of garments, at once elegant and cozy, are on view.
“Sumu’s watercolor paintings resemble her scarf designs: sun-kissed tones, abstract patterns with botanical and architectural references. The paintings, like “GNAWA FLEUR,” are deft and warm. But the sculptures — freed of the limitations of clothing but full of references to the body — are packed with fascinating tensions. Sumu takes inspiration from materials and designs she finds on travels in Africa, Europe, and the United States.”
“At Make & Mend, a retail storefront located in Somerville, heaps and heaps of gently used craft supplies — from vintage fabrics to colored pencils to embroidery floss — are primed for a second life.
“Local artist Emily S. Tirella founded Make & Mend in 2017, inspired by her encounters with waste at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. “I was spending a ridiculous amount of money on materials that could be reused year after year,” she remembers. Instead of purchasing supplies every year, she began saving her used supplies.”