Promega’s 2019 Summer Art Showcase features SoHE student work inspired by the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection.
This week’s Textile Tuesday is a very special one. This afternoon, art lovers from around Madison are gathering for the opening of the Promega Summer Art Showcase, “Studying History, Designing the Future.” The show features diverse works inspired by the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection at the School of Human Ecology at UW–Madison.
Show organizerDr. Marina Moskowitz, professor of Design Studies and the Lynn and Gary Mecklenburg Chair in Textiles, Material Culture, and Design, remarked of the exhibit, “It’s wonderful to see how many different pieces the Textile Collection could inspire. There’s just such rich variety across these walls.”
Over the course of the 2018–19 academic year, SoHE students created scores of works based on the patterns and methods they found among pieces in the collection. Select student pieces featured in the Promega Summer Art Showcase are each accompanied by a small print of the Collection pieces that inspired them.
Helen Louise Allen was a professor of Weaving at UW–Madison from 1927 to 1968, and she began the collection that bears her name through her research and travel across the US and globally. Her legacy continues to inspire students and visitors to the collection alike to push the bounds of what they thought possible in material culture and design.
Promega’s Summer Art Showcase opened with a symposium featuring SoHE faculty. The show will run June 11–September 1, 2019, at Promega’s BioPharmaceutical Technology Center in Fitchburg. See details below to plan your visit.
Promega 2019 Summer Art Showcase
Summer-long Show
Dates: Tuesday, June 11–Sunday, September 1, 2019
Location: 5445 East Cheryl Parkway, Fitchburg, WI 53711 (map)
Hours: 8:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Admission: Free
Questions? Find more information online here.
Learn more about the Promega Art Showcase and sign up to hear about future events. Learn more about the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection, and plan a visit to the Lynn Mecklenburg Textile Gallery at the School of Human Ecology at UW–Madison.
#TextileTuesday is a yearlong series celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection.
In 2019, the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Human Ecology launched a yearlong anniversary celebration of the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection. Over the past half century, the collection has grown from an original 4,000-piece gift to more than 13,000 objects that have inspired and informed thousands of students, researchers, historians, and textile aficionados. The 50-year celebration began on January 27, 2019, with the opening of new Lynn Mecklenburg Textile Gallery, a space dedicated to year-round displays of the collections. Activities continue into 2019 with a calendar of public exhibitions, symposia, lectures, and public workshops.