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Creator Chat: Visual Arts

Click on the video to watch a full replay of this live program from October 13th, 2021.

Join our webinar host Audrey Cooper, Editor in Chief at WNYC Public Radio as she leads an expert panel with Jill D’Alessandro, Curator in Charge of Costume and Textile Arts; Kimberly Johansson, Founder and Director of Johansson Projects, a contemporary art gallery in Oakland; and Susie Taylor, a veteran textile designer and master weaver.

In Conversation With

Audrey Cooper image
Audrey Cooper, Creator Chat Host
Audrey Cooper is Editor in Chief and VP of News for WNYC/New York Public Radio, a role she assumed in July 2020. Formerly she was the editor in chief of the San Francisco Chronicle, the first woman to fill the role in the company’s 154-year history. Under her leadership, the Chronicle won nearly every major national journalism prize, including more than a dozen Emmy awards. San Francisco magazine has named Audrey one of the city’s most powerful women. Editor and Publisher magazine named her one of the world’s “Top 10 Women to Watch” and Advertising Age named her one of their “Top 40 under 40.” A native of the Kansas City area, Audrey graduated magna cum laude from Boston University, which has honored her as a distinguished alumna.

Jill D'Alessandro headshot in front of textiles background
Jill D’Alessandro

Jill D’Alessandro is the curator in charge of costume and textile arts at The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. In her position, she oversees a collection of over 13,000 costumes and textile from 125 countries worldwide. Since 2002, D’Alessandro has developed numerous exhibitions on a diverse variety of subjects, ranging from world textile traditions to twentieth-century fashion design. As curator, the Fine Arts Museums collections have greatly informed D’Alessandro’s worldview and she is interested in the study of textile arts as a vehicle to draw connections across cultures. More recent projects include The Summer of Love Experience: Art, Fashion and Rock & Roll (2017) and Contemporary Muslim Fashions (2018), which she both co-curated and co-edited the exhibition catalogue.

D’Alessandro earned her bachelor’s degree from Scripps College, Claremont California and her master’s degree from Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA in textile arts. In 1998, she received a Fulbright Scholarship to study in South Korea, where she focused on traditional hand papermaking techniques and their application in contemporary art. She has also conducted field research in Indonesia, Mexico, and Guatemala. Jill has contributed essays to Fiberarts, Hali, Tribal Arts magazines and Anthropology and Beauty: From Aesthetics to Creativity published by Routledge, as well as numerous museum publications.

Kimberly Jahansson
Kimberly Johansson
Kimberly Johansson is a gallerist based in San Francisco and Oakland, CA. She is the founder and director of Johansson Projects, a contemporary art gallery in Oakland established in 2007, and has worked in galleries and museums for 30 years. Her background encompasses art, architecture and anthropology. Johansson Projects is a contemporary art gallery located at 23rd Street and Telegraph Avenue, in the heart of Oakland, California. Curated exhibitions showcase emerging and mid-career artists working in a diverse array of media.

Susie Taylor Creator Chat photo
Susie Taylor
Susie Taylor is a veteran textile designer and master weaver who combines technical skill and artistry to create abstract and dimensional textiles. She received her BFA from Kansas City Art Institute and her MFA from UCLA. She maintains a studio in San Jose, CA.

She has exhibited her work in the US and in international fiberart and contemporary textile biennials in China and Ukraine.  Recent exhibitions include Pushing the Limits, A Virtual Shaft Weaving Art Exhibition, Stitch at Andrea Schwartz Gallery, Material Meaning: A Living Legacy of Anni Albers at Craft in America Center, Fiber Art-100 Years of Bauhaus at Art Ventures Gallery and The Fabric of Representation in San Francisco.

Her work will be in an upcoming issue of New American Paintings and has been seen in The LA Times, American Craft, Fiberarts, FiberArt Now, The Textile Eye, Complex Weavers Journal, Shuttle Spindle & Dyepot, Handwoven, Journal of Weavers Spinners & Dyers and The Bulletin (Guild of Canadian Weavers) magazines.  She has taught at Penland School of Arts & Crafts,  Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts and Tyler School of Art.