"Over the Rainbow," produced during Theresa-India Young's community-weaving workshop at the South End Library, 2003
On Tuesday, June 19, the South End Library will host a community fundraiser to establish an ethnic weaving scholarship at Mass College of Art in the name of fiber artist Theresa-India Young. Young, who specialized in the teaching and history of traditional fiber arts from African-American and Native-American cultures, passed away prematurely in 2008. A long-time resident of the Piano Factory Guild artists' building on Tremont Street, she held several workshops at the South End Library, and supervised the weaving of "Over the Rainbow," the wall hanging that has graced the stairway wall over the computer section of the branch for almost a decade.
Ms. Young amassed an enormous research library on world cultures that included textiles, carpets, ceramics, jewelry and books. They were donated to a number of local institutions, including Mass College of Art, the Tozzer Library of Harvard College, the Allan R. Crite Research Library and Wheelock College, among other places. The New York City-born artist had learned basketry, rug weaving and skills rooted in --the South-Carolina-based-- Gullah folk arts from her relatives, but won a scholarship to Boston University's Program-in-Artisanry for Textiles in 1975. Since then, she taught and lectured at many Boston institutions, including the Museum of Fine Arts.
The June 19 fundraiser will offer a silent auction with special items for sale, such as Young's tassels and drapery tie-backs; works by different artists; vintage clothing; African sculptures; beaded necklaces; handmade notebooks and Egyptian calendars. The fiscal agent for tax-deductible donations to benefit the Theresa-India Young Memorial scholarship fund is United South End Artists.
The event starts at 5:30 PM. There will be light refreshments.