The Museum & Arts Center in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley hosts world-renowned felt artist Janice Arnold for a special one-day event from 1-4 p.m. Sunday, March 13, at the Dungeness Schoolhouse, 2781 Towne Road, Sequim.
Arnold, a 2009 Artist Trust Fellowship recipient, gives a two-part presentation focusing both on her research and travels studying traditional felt-making in Central Asia and Mongolia and on making handmade felt as a functional and decorative art. The latter portion also will chronicle her personal path into making felt and provide a behind-the-scenes view of the processes that went into creating her most notable projects and installations to date.
Arnold, who is based in Grand Mound, has worked both individually and collaboratively on large-scale felt design projects and exhibitions for Cirque du Soleil, the Los Angeles Opera, the Nordstrom Corporation, the Grand Rapids Art Museum in Grand Rapids, Mich., and the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City.
Arnold said she will bring raw fibers as well as finished pieces to her presentation at the Dungeness Schoolhouse so that attendees can enjoy the tactile nature of the materials.
“The current high-tech world with its synthetic surroundings has taken us far from the natural world and our historic traditions of making things by hand. We are starved for natural textures, fibers and irregular forms. I believe wool felt connects us with our natural history in a way no other fabric can,” Arnold has said of her work.
“It is my artistic passion to take the ancient art form of feltmaking and blend it with a modern aesthetic to create art and textiles that transcend time, looking both modern and ancient.”
Admission to this one-day presentation is $8 for MAC members and $10 for nonmembers. Registration is not required, and payment — cash, check, Visa or MasterCard — is collected at the door.
Attendees are encouraged to arrive at least 15 minutes before the presentation is scheduled to begin.
“The MAC supports and encourages all forms of artistic expression and always is seeking new avenues of education and outreach relating to the arts and our programs in general,” said MAC Executive Director DJ Bassett. “We look forward to attracting other world-renowned, well-respected and knowledgeable guest speakers for our programs.”
For more information about the MAC’s arts-related programs, including its monthly featured art exhibits, visit the MAC website at www.macsequim.org or call the MAC Exhibit Center at 683-8110.
For more about Janice Arnold, visit her website at www.jafelt.com.
