Textile Society of America
Date of this Version
2004
Citation
Textile Society of America 9th Biennial Symposium (2004)
Abstract
Introduction
The Textile Society of America’s 9th Biennial Symposium took place October 7–9, 2004, at the Oakland Marriott City Center Hotel in Oakland, California. The theme as reflected in the title, appropriation • acculturation • transformation, offered a stimulating approach to the study of historic and contemporary textiles from many cultures and diverse perspectives. Of eighty presentations in twenty-four sessions, seventy are represented in this CD-ROM. Sixty-seven authors have contributed sixty-two papers. Together with more than seventy abstracts, they reflect in text and image the substance and intellectual vibrancy that characterized this symposium.
Geographically, the San Francisco Bay Area is where East greets West, where the landmass of North America abuts the Pacific coast, a meeting point of cultures that comprise the Pacific Rim. Historically, the Bay Area has witnessed dramatic creativity in the textile arts: from the native peoples of California, world renowned for their basketry, through the early Spanish, Mexican, and Yankee settlers who traded local goods for silks from Asia and the Pacific, to the days of the Golden Gate International Exposition in 1939-1940 and the early work of Dorothy Liebes. More recently, the Bay Area has continued to attract people with a passion for fiber: the “Textile Revolution” of the 1970s was fueled by the contributions of Ed Rossbach, Lillian Elliott, Kay Sekimachi, Katherine Westphal and their followers.
An area with a long record of scholarly contrarianism and counter-cultural initiatives, this geographic nexus had spawned more than its share of debates about terminology surrounding textiles, fiber arts, and textile arts, and deliberative consideration as to how these concepts relate to more formally recognized and accepted arts.
Note on Editing
Acknowledgments
appropriation • acculturation • transformation.
Comments
Presented at “Appropriation • Acculturation • Transformation,” Textile Society of America 9th Biennial Symposium, Oakland, California, October 7-9, 2004. Copyright 2004 Textile Society of America.