DSNWK, FHSU weaving project culminates with exhibit during Art Walk

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

A FHSU student and DSNWK clients work on a weaving. Courtesy photo

A collaborative art project with Fort Hays State University and Developmental Services of Northwest Kansas clients will be on display Friday at Hays Public Library during the Spring Art Walk.

Amy Schmierbach, professor of art and design at Fort Hays State University, received a grant this fall from the Surface Design Association, a fiber arts group, to assist students and DSNWK clients create weavings.

FHSU students visited the Reed Center twice a week and worked with clients. About four clients at a time worked with the FHSU students on large looms to create multi-colored and -textured wall hangings.

All the fabric strips and yarn were donated for the project, and the DSNWK clients chose the colors and designs they wanted to include in the pieces.

Schmierbach has cooperated with DSNWK on several projects over the years, but said she felt a renewed passion to work with DSNWK clients after her son, who is 10, was diagnosed with autism and their family sought services from DSNWK.

She said the DSNWK clients reap benefits from the art making process.

DSNWK clients work on a weaving. Courtesy photo

“It is not a prescribed project that needs to look like ‘this’ at the end,” she said. “It gives them a lot of freedom to be creative on their own. There are very creative people.

“I think making artwork is empowering to everyone involved. I feel art has the power to change either on my end or my students’, for amateurs’ or professionals’. All these guys at DSNWK, it can change their lives, being productive, but also making these beautiful things to put out into the world that have value. I think there is a lot of great powerfulness that can come from that.”

The FHSU students who worked with the DSNWK clients get a new way of making art, Schmierbach said.

She emphasized the weavings were collaborations and not just a craft the students were teaching. She described this project as a form of social practice art.

Student McKenna O’Hare described social practice art in a statement for the exhibit as “the process of making art focused on the engagement of social interaction between individuals or communities, and it often aims to create social and/or political change through collaboration of participatory art.”

She continues by saying the act of making the art is often more important than the art itself.

The DSNWK/FHSU weavings are currently on display at the Hays Public Library.

“It is a matter of completely emerging oneself into a community to work towards a goal, raise awareness of issues, facilitate discussion, and other interpersonal interactions,” she writes.

By bringing awareness to a taboo subject, the reaction to the art is also often part of the art itself, she writes.

“Because social practice art is so broad, the end goal can vary tremendously. That may look like bringing physical change to a community, opening up conversation on hushed topics, simply bringing awareness to an overlooked community, shed light on political, governmental, or social issues, or maybe something completely different,” she said.

Other FHSU students who participated in the project included Alberto Hernandez Martinez, Garden City, and Kendra Hall, Purdy, Missouri.

Schmierbach has received another grant from the Surface Design Association to continue her program with the DSNWK clients. She said she would like to see the weavings travel outside of the community to other exhibitions to spread it message of inclusion and awareness.

Two of the weavings will be raffled to the public Friday with the money benefiting the DSNWK arts program. Tickets can be purchased at the library Friday night. Tickets are on sale for 1 for $3, 2 for $5 or 5 for $10.