Wanted: Young fiber artists who’d like to spend a (free) week studying under professional fiber artists with major chops, like, say Katie Pasquini Masopust, Jean Wells, Mickey Lawler, Elizabeth Busch and Barbara Lee Smith.
Can you say “no brainer?”
If you’re a fiber artist under the age of 30 who is serious about developing your work, you’ve just got to apply for
the Young Emerging Artist scholarship program connected with the Alegre Retreat for art quilters held every year in Gateway, Colorado.
The retreat, founded in 1994 by Katie PM herself, is a primo week of study and fiber work set in the magical Gateway
Canyons Resort about an hour south of Grand Junction, Colorado. The resort is nestled amongst the striking Red Rocks formations, truly an inspirational setting.
This year’s retreat is April 15-22, and it will feature lectures and sessions by its illustrious faculty (listed above),
as well as work time, social events, and tours of local interests. The retreat was started in Santa Fe in 1994 by Katie Pasquini Masopust, and moved to Gateway, Colorado in 2009. (Visit http://www.alegreretreat.com/index.htm to learn more.)
Abigail Kokai, a Young Emerging Artist award winner in 2011, says the retreat setting itself was remarkably entwined with what she learned about herself and her fiber art.
- Abigail Kokai
“I couldn’t take two steps without stopping to absorb the composition of the landscape, the colors, the wind dancing across my skin, the crispness of the air, the flutter of last fall’s leaves skipping along the ground…it was like shedding an urban skin and feeling the natural earth once again,” she says.
Applying for the Young Emerging Artist scholarship award is easy. Just send a CD with 10 images of your work and a one-page essay describing what it would mean for you to attend the Alegre Retreat to Tammy Anderson, tammy.anderson@gatewaycanyons.com.
The YEA is sponsored by the John and Maureen Hendricks family to encourage young artists to get involved in art quilting. This year, though, there will be two YEA scholarships awarded, the second one being sponsored by Sandy Chapin, who has been attending the Alegre Retreat for 17 years. She is sponsoring an additional YEA in honor of her mother-in-law, Elspeth Hart.
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