Student/New Professional Scholarships for TSA Conference, Hawaii, 2008

The Textile Society of America is pleased to announce that “Student/New Professional Scholarships” will again be offered for the TSA Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii, September 24-27, 2008.

Scholarships will be awarded to the selected TSA members who are currently either students in a textile-related field, have graduated from a textile-related field within the past three years, or have been in their first job in the textile field for less than three years.

The Scholarships will not be a cash award, but will cover the cost of the Symposium registration, including the banquet. The recipients will be responsible for covering their travel costs, accommodation as well as other meals during the symposium.

Recipients will be asked to:

1. Attend the event at the Symposium where the Scholarship recipients will be introduced.
2. Select one panel or session from the Symposium or an exhibition on display in conjunction with the Symposium and write a review of it for the TSA Newsletter.

To apply please submit:

1. A statement (maximum 250 words) outlining how attendance at the Symposium would relate to and benefit your professional goals.
2. If images are relevant to your work and submission statement you may submit up to 8 jpg images of 72 dpi resolution with a size no larger that 854 x 1280 pixels. Please include an image list providing title, dates, dimensions, medium for each image.
3. A resume, clearly indicating title and starting date of your current occupation.

Scholarship submissions will be reviewed and awards determined by the Textile Society of America Awards Committee. Please submit your request via e-mail to Vita Plume at vita_plume@ncsu.edu by March 31, 2008. Successful recipients will be notified by May 15, 2008.

Past Scholar/New Professional Scholarship Recipients

Student / Young Professional Scholarship Recipients: Toronto 2006

The Textile Society of America established “Student/New Professional Scholarships” for the TSA Conference in Toronto, Oct. 11 – 14, 2006. Five scholarships were awarded to TSA members who are currently either students in a textile-related field, have graduated from a textile-related field within the past three years or have been in their first job in the textile field for less than three years. The Scholarships covered the cost of the Symposium registration, including the banquet. Following are the first recipients of the TSA Student/Young Professional Scholarships:

Kofi Hadjor presented scholarship recipients with Kente cloths.
From L - R: Jeanine Henderson, Penney Burton, Kofi Hadjor, Vita Plume, Emily Zilber, Cristin McKnight. Photo by Julia Burke, Head of Textile Conservation at the National Gallery of Art.

Margaret Olugbemisola Areo
Margaret is a Doctoral Student at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology in Nigeria, where she also works as a full-time lecturer. She has a BA in Fine Arts from the University of Ile-Ife and an MFA from Obafemi Awolowo University. Her goal in coming to the Symposium was to link with people and events in other parts of the world and to broaden the scope of her textile knowledge. She has a particular interest in the relationship of fine and applied arts with technology. Margaret's request for a visa from the Canadian Deputy High Commission in Nigeria was not granted and unfortunately she could not attend the Symposium.

Judith Penney Burton
Penney finished her BFA at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax in 2004 and is currently enrolled at Concordia University in Montreal where she is working on her MA combining Art and Craft History with Studio Art. Her research focuses on the history of Fiber Art in North America and for this study she plans to interview craftspeople and artists examining their mind and body engagement with materials and processes. She presented a paper at the Symposium entitled “Textiles: Stories from the Canadian Front”. Her goal at the symposium was to meet leaders in the field, students from other institutions as well as explore possibilities for future academic studies.

Jeanine Henderson
Jeanine is currently enrolled in a Master of Art & Design with a Fibers Concentration and a minor in Public History / Museum Studies at North Carolina State University. Along with her studies she is working part time as a Textile Conservation Technician at the NC Museum of History and at the NCSU Gallery of Design. Her interest is not only in expressing herself using textiles creatively, but also in researching, educating and caring for textiles. She came to the Symposium with the aim to consider textiles from a broad variety of perspectives and expand her understanding of the technical and cultural aspects of fibers. Her goal was to meet a broad range of textiles professionals who can share advice and insights to inform her career pathway.

Cristin R. McKnight
In 2004 Cristin received a Fullbright Fellowship to research the Kalamkari textiles of South India. This research was inspirational and informs her her graduate studies at the Department of Art History at the University of Texas, in Austen. She plans to continue a focused study of textile practice in South Asia and the role textiles play in a larger contemporary artistic discourse. She will also bring to her studies her various experiences as Curatorial, Project and Research Assistants for a private textile collection; as well as the Costume and Textile Department and the Modern and the Contemporary Art Department at The Los Angeles County Museum of Art. At the Symposium she was looking for interaction with a wide variety of textile professionals to provide inspiration for future academic and professional pursuits.

Emily Zilber
Emily has a BA in Art History from The University of Chicago and is currently working on a Master of Arts in the History of Decorative Arts and Design at Bard Graduate Center in New York. She has worked as an intern at the Antonio Ratti Textile Center and the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and also as Curatorial Assistant at the Museum of Arts and Design, both in New York. Her research is linked to the relationship of textiles to ritual, in early Modern Europe, specifically looking at narrative and modes of communication through design, iconography, pattern and ornament. She came to the Symposium to broaden her knowledge of methodologies in the field.