RICH MACIEJEWSKI
Karen Patterson has been hired as the first-ever curator at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia. She comes to the museum from the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, where she currently serves as senior curator.
During her seven years at JMKAC, Patterson organized more than 40 exhibitions and installations, among them “Makeshift,” a 2018 collaboration with artist Michelle Grabner, and “The Road Less Traveled” (2017). She also curated the currently running show “Mise-en-Scène” and is a co-founder of a 12-hour public art festival in Nova Scotia called “Nocturne: Art at Night.”
Patterson said in a statement, “I see the Fabric Workshop and Museum as an artist-centered powerhouse of experimentation, collaboration, education, and presentation and am excited to contribute to that legacy. I work with a strong desire to elevate the public’s understanding of the creative process and a belief that art can be anchored in a variety of societal discourses. I’m excited to share those ideas with the Fabric Workshop and Museum and the city of Philadelphia.”
Susan Lubowsky Talbott, the executive director of the Fabric Workshop and Museum and the successor of the institution’s late founding director Marion “Kippy” Boulton Stroud, called Patterson “an ideal fit for this position, coming from another process-oriented institution focused on both the creation and exhibition of contemporary works. She has championed the work of a diverse group of artists and we are thrilled to welcome her to further the creative and cultural impact of FWM.”