Wolfe Gallery

List of 2 items.

• About Fiberforum

  Fiberforum is a 50-year-old northwest Ohio art group whose members use a wide variety of fiber media and techniques to create individual works as well as collaborative projects. The group encourages the appreciation of traditional techniques and ways in which these techniques can be expanded. Its members use a variety of media and techniques such as quilting, surface design, felting, papermaking, cold wax, and mixed media. 
  
  

  Members often work on collaborations, where each artist adds to or modifies each other’s work in a communal manner or otherwise produces art as a group. More examples of their projects are on its website.

• The history of Fiberforum

  Fiberforum was founded in 1974 by Mary Mabry, Pat Brown, and Julie Harrison. Their goal was to create a group of like minded artists to share information and ideas as well as to encourage the use of fiber media as an art form in addition to its more traditional uses. Although it was often disparaged as "women's work,” fiber as an art medium at this time was exploding onto the art scene worldwide, becoming a recognized form of art.
  
  The three artists connected through Mary who was teaching at Bowling Green State University. Pat was Mary’s independent study graduate student. Julie was teaching art in the Toledo Public Schools and Mary had placed student teachers in Julie’s classroom. From these three women Fiberforum began to grow, with other fiber artists being invited to join the group.
  
  Fiberforum hosted workshops that were open to the public. A couple of the early workshops included one on felting and another on silkscreening on fabric. In 1983, Fiberforum received a grant from the Ohio Arts Council to experiment with a computerized loom, which was new technology at the time. This two-month experiment ended with a demonstration open to the public. They displayed their weaving samples and written results in Dallas, TX, at the Handweavers Guild of America’s convention, "Convergence," in 1984.
  
  

  Fiberforum has had group shows throughout Ohio. The purpose of these activities has been to show people that fiber is a recognized art form and an exciting art medium. Individual and collaborative works help members grow as artists. Over the years, members have come and gone, but the core purpose of the group has remained the same: to explore and promote fiber as an art form.