Francesca Bertani, born and raised in St. Louis Missouri, is both an oil painter and fiber artist, currently based in Chicago. She explores femininity and the profound narrative of being a woman navigating the complexities of heritage and life's adversities. Her work is a mix of classical elegance and modern vibrancy. She experiments with the addition of sculptural elements, and treads on anatomy/ biology in her work. 

https://cotedazer.com

Textile Codes: Weaving the Language of DNA

Examining the overlap between archives and language, Atlas is currently studying Woodworking and Arts Administration at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Frequently using digital fabrication methods to recreate lost craft techniques, they draw inspiration from antiquated traditional Turkish iconography. 

instagram.com/limeatlas/ 

But Is It Really a Towel?: A Detailed Overview of Embroidered Turkish Textiles 

Maraya Henderson is a second-year graduate student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, pursuing a degree in Art Therapy and Counseling. With a deep passion for creative expression, Maraya explores how art can communicate what words often cannot. Her experience spans a variety of mediums—from digital illustration to ceramics and fiber arts—each offering a unique avenue for emotional processing and healing. Committed to expanding the field of art therapy, she advocates for greater representation of Black women in clinical spaces and strives to make therapeutic practices more accessible and approachable within the Black community.

Altering the Altered: A Collective Quilt Workshop to Address the Manifestation of Transgenerational Trauma as a Black Woman.

Sofia Marie Herr is fiber artist, born and raised in a small town in southwestern Pennsylvania, whose work embodies feminine intelligence, skill, and ingenuity. Through weaving and other fiber techniques, she combines systems of logic and collaborative labor to create lovely objects, inspired and informed by the colonial, midwest, and South American aesthetics of her childhood. She engages with the history of the loom as an archaic computer- a tool with an encoded system activated by human energy- along with other pattern-driven and systematic fiber techniques, seeking to redefine her relationship with technology and interpersonal connection in an increasingly digitized and codified world.

www.sofiaherr.com

I Taught Myself How to Make Venetian Needle Lace

I am a multidisciplinary artist, art educator, and researcher based in Chicago, dedicated to fostering creative spaces that are culturally responsive, hands-on, and rooted in community.

My love for fiber arts began with quiet moments—watching my grandmother crochet, or feeling the weight of a handmade quilt stitched by a great-great grandmother. These memories became the seeds for my own creative journey, where fiber became both a material and a language of connection. This early exposure to craft deeply shaped my belief in the power of intergenerational making and storytelling.

With a background in ceramics, fiber, digital media, and photography, I’ve spent over a decade working in classrooms, community centers, and arts organizations. I’ve designed and led visual arts curricula for learners of all ages, and my teaching experience spans elementary, middle, and high school levels—most recently in Chicago Public Schools.

In addition to my classroom work, I facilitate fiber arts workshops, lead community-based projects, and develop curriculum rooted in cultural heritage and personal narrative. I am especially passionate about helping young artists connect with their own identities and traditions through the act of making.

You can view my full résumé here: Resume 

Harmony Skye & A Family Legacy

Sophia Muys is an artist and MFA candidate at the School of the Arts Institute of Chicago. She is from the Bay Area, California, and currently resides in Chicago. She completed her Bachelor's Degree at UCLA in 2022, with concentrations in Art and Art History. Primarily working in figurative ceramic sculpture, her practice is focused around themes of cultural lineage, conceptions of cuteness, and bad attitudes. 

Contact via Instagram: @sophiamuys or by email: smuys@artic.edu

Not a Proper Tartan at All: What Tartan’s Origins and Semiotic History Can Tell Us About British Mythologies of the Self

Chloe Preece is a multidisciplinary artist focused on merging fiber and material studies with illustration and design. She has received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and plans to move back to her hometown in Austin, Texas to continue her practice there.

HUICHOL (wee-chol) Yarn Painting

Memory serves as the foundation of our identity, history, and universe. It condenses time so that we exist simultaneously in the past, present, and future. Sequoia’s work utilizes material as relation as a root to ground the work in temporal geographies. The material becomes a conduit for memory and identity throughout her work.

She reflects on how being a bi-racial, Mexican American, disabled woman has shaped her existence; living, working, and studying out of Chicago, she is in a constant state of navigating conflicting dualities of identity and place. Her work often directly references her body and her experiences.

https://www.sequoiawv.com/

SEQUOIA:  Exploration of Use, Material and Production to Reference the Self

Kately Towsley makes work about the human experience. Engaging with topics of memory and social justice, she is interested in collective and individual narratives. 

katelytowsley-art.com/about