The new school year begins with some well-deserved coverage for InterArts Asst. Professor Melissa Potter’s 2013 project Crafting Women’s Stories: Lives in Georgian Felt. The planning and implementation of this investigation has been detailed in a feature article, which can be linked to from the Columbia College website home page.

A photo essay of the project is in the latest issue of the academic publication n.paradoxa. This international journal publishes scholarly and critical articles highlighting feminist art and feminist art theory written by women critics, art historians, and artists concerning the work of contemporary women artists post-1970 working anywhere in the world. Each thematic volume in print contains artists and authors from up to 10 countries in the world, and explores their work in relation to feminist theory and feminist art practices.

Potter is continuing to build on this project back home in the United States. Along with her collaborator Miriam Schaer (InterArts Book + Paper Lecturer) Potter is already planning felt workshops at Baird Center in South Orange, New Jersey and North Central College in Naperville, and plan in the near future include collaborating with ethnographer Robert Chenciner (who helped research traditional Georgian craft throughout the program) on a book examining the history of felt masks and rugs in the context of the workshops and modern activism.