News and Media

Article By: Darren Miller
Published: Dec 2, 2011

For Katie Glusica (M.F.A., fibers, 2011), satisfaction as a weaver comes when she successfully executes her vision.

"The enjoyment is a fleeting and yet somehow lasting moment felt when a piece, upon completion and installation, looks like what you saw in your mind," Glusica said.

But a perfect outcome often means an imperfect creation.

Glusica, who graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2005 with a B.F.A. in crafts with a focus on textiles before arriving at SCAD to pursue an M.F.A. in fibers, has worked for seven years as an oriental and antique rug restoration artist.

"The process of making by hand is precisely imperfect," Glusica writes on her website. "In my work as a restoration artist for handmade rugs, this has become even more relevant as no two rugs are alike and are, in some cases, even considered more valuable because of their imperfections."

Her job working on these rugs (currently at Savannah Galleries) has "greatly impacted" her studio practice.

"As I weave, I make conscious decisions toward the level of perfection I seek to maintain, allowing for subtle variations so long as they do not compromise structural integrity," she said. "It is my intention that any imperfection in my cloths can be seen as a clue to the process by which it was created."

After deciding that she wanted to continue her experimentation with weaving on a graduate level, Glusica chose SCAD and its fibers program, partly because she would have access to the department's rare and now well-known Jacquard loom. (SCAD was one of the first to invest in an electronic Jacquard hand loom and digital textile printer, offering students more opportunities to engage with sophisticated technology.) The East Coast location and warm weather helped her make the decision.

Before completing her M.F.A. degree requirements in early 2011, Glusica left her mark on the SCAD fibers department, receiving the award for best thesis proposal at SCAD in winter quarter 2010.

In Fall 2010, she exhibited at the respected and influential Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show later that fall, earning the coveted "Best of Show" award in the emerging artist category. (SCAD was the first school in the three-decade history of the event invited to exhibit.)

"My work is inspired by weaving, as a process and object, life and science," Glusica said.

She also was selected to participate in the American Craft Council's 2010 School-to-Market program, which is designed to help bridge the gap between educational programs and the marketplace. That same year Glusica also participated in The American Craft Exposition, a highly regarded juried exhibition at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and presented her thesis exhibition, "The Seen and Unseen: A Dialectic in Weaving," at Indigo Sky Gallery in Savannah.

"Those experiences encouraged me to explore the world of craft from multiple perspectives," she said.

She has continued to gain widespread exposure and attract attention in 2011, with her work featured in "The Loom: On Around and Through," an exhibit at The Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston, Massachusetts; the prestigious Smithsonian Craft Show at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.; and "N[e]W[e]ave," an exhibit of five contemporary weavers at the University of Wisconsin Design Gallery in Madison. She also returned to the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show in 2011.

Glusica is currently exhibiting work at Craft Forms 2011 - an international juried exhibition of contemporary craft in its 17th year - through Jan. 21, 2012, at the Wayne Art Center in Wayne, Pennsylvania.

Learn more about the SCAD fibers program.