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August 2005

Dear Friends of Fiber Art,

A year from now I will be leaving my position as Head of the Fiber Program in the Art & Art History Department at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. For 16 years I have worked to build that program, which I inherited from those who’d worked so hard before me. I am grateful for what has happened during my tenure—remarkable artists have graduated with MFAs in Fiber, BFA grads have gone on to graduate programs or employment elsewhere; there is strong enrollment at all levels of our program. Students have received scholarship support and recognition from both the local Handweavers’ Hui and from the Big Island Handweavers’ Hui.

With generous contributions from the community, we have built a textile history study collection, a Fiber library, and maintained well run studios with the necessary equipment and facilities required of a growing program. Our students have benefited from and contributed to other institutions in the community through textile internships in many museum settings in Honolulu—the Honolulu Academy of Art, Bishop Museum, Mission Houses, and Tropic Lightning Museum. Some students have gone from being interns to being employed at the museums where they began as interns. Our program was called upon to help repair looms and encourage residents to weave again at Kalapapa.

The Fiber studios have welcomed Fiber workshops, co-sponsored by our program and other community organizations, open to the larger Fiber community taught by internationally known artists. We have frequently been asked to suggest possible artists for potential programming at Temari Center for Asian and Pacific Arts. The program has advocated for exhibitions of contemporary fiber art and historic textiles at the University Art Gallery.

The program has also encouraged the inclusion of more artists working in fiber sculpture in the "Shoebox" exhibit, and worked toward bringing artists with a fiber sensibility to be part of the Intersections visiting artist/scholar program. The UHM Fiber Program is the only such undergraduate and graduate program in the State of Hawaii, committed to furthering and teaching critical understanding, knowledge, and skills in both historic and contemporary art in the fiber medium. It provides the basis for teaching at the secondary and college levels. I have listed at the end of this letter names of artists and exhibitions that our program has brought.

I will not be involved in discussions of my replacement. It is up to the Art Department to prioritize positions for replacement. If you feel you would be willing to write a letter supporting the Fiber Program and its continuation through a tenure track position, I ask that you write why you think the Fiber Program is necessary in the Art & Art History Dept. at UHM. On Sept. 1, I expect to submit to Willa Tanabe, Chair of the Dept., my letter with my intention to move on to the next (creative) phase of my life, focusing on my own studio work to see what I might do without full time University demands and to live in the same time zone as some members of our family. I will deeply miss Hawaii and friends, taking with me all that I’ve been given by living here.

The letter you write is not about me or what I may or may not have done. It’s about the future of the Fiber Program and your thoughts regarding the need for it to continue with a replacement in a full time tenure track position in Fiber. Please address your letter to:

By Sept. 1, please send your letter in an envelope addressed to me at my home/studio address:

426D Ulupaina St.

Kailua, HI 96734

Or email me your attached letter to phickman@hawaii.edu

I will make copies and deliver two packets—one to Willa and the other to the Chair of the DPC, so my Dept. can understand the urgency of putting this issue on the agenda. Letters may also be forwarded by the Chair to the Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities and to the Chancellor, as a show of community support urging that a position be made available for Fiber.

There is some thought that a 3-D position in sculpture for a hire with some Fiber training, might be considered. I fear that this would dismantle some of the teaching which is unique to our Fiber Program, including loom and non loom weaving, surface design, papermaking, wearable art, history of textiles, museum textile collection research and conservation internships, etc. Fiber sculpture is one important aspect of our very broad field, but not all that is essential to a strong, solid Fiber program.

Please encourage any and all members of the larger community to write expressing their support for a replacement position for Fiber, so that the Art & Art History Dept. will understand that others in the local community (and beyond) care and are concerned about this hire. Hawaii has such a long history and respect for fibrous materials. What is possible here, in this medium, is only beginning to be realized. Now is NOT the time to close down this program which can be such a resource to students and the larger community. I remain deeply committed and will do all I can to encourage the continuation of our Program. I would be most grateful for your letters urging a replacement for the Fiber position at UHM, so the program will continue. Whenever an academic Fiber Program is lost, it has an impact on our entire professional field. If there is any place where a Fiber Program is needed, it is here in Hawaii.

Sincerely,

Pat Hickman
Professor of Art

Some of the internationally know artists working in the fiber medium who have lectured or taught workshops connected with the fiber program since 1990:

Junichi Arai, Allen Moe, Martha Stanley, Jim Bassler, Susan Sternlieb, Archie Brennan, Susan Martin Maffei, Mary Frame, Ed Franquemont, Lillian Elliott, Joanne Segal Brandford, Dorothy Gill Barnes, John McQueen, Margo Mensing, Gaza Bowen, Reiko Sudo, Hisako Sekijima, Cynthia Schira, Laurel Reuter, Emily DuBois, Sheila O’hara and others.

Recent exhibitions at the University of Hawaii of contemporary fiber art or historic textiles:

"Baskets: Redefining Volume and Meaning", which traveled to Hui No’eau on Maui, with accompanying workshops on Maui and Kauai

"Fisherman’s Coats of Awaji", Turkish textiles and Indonesian textiles as part of collections in Honolulu, and the "Shishu" exhibit at the Japanese Cultural Center which traveled to the East-West Cultural Center, Big Island.

Intersections artists/scholars nominated by the fiber program:

Patrick Dougherty, Joyce Scott, Janet Koplos, Nick Cave, Puanani Van Dorp, Eric Enos and Lilette Subedi (Ka’ala Farms, Inc.) and Diane Katsiaficas

The following is general information about Fiber submitted by a Member in 2000.