Past Exhibitions

Mull and Palmer Galleries | Anne Bissonnette, Curator Curvilinear, pliable and changing while in motion, the human body is a never ending design challenge to individuals who aim to clothe it. To cover with cloth (a.k.a. clothing) has long meant the use of what is essentially a two-dimensional medium to cover a three-dimensional form. Draped on the body and held at strategic places, as seen in the Greek chiton or the Indian sari, or cut and assembled, cloth remains the most common medium used to produce a garment.

Alumni Gallery | Jean L. Druesedow, Director The furisode, or "swinging sleeve" kimono, is traditionally worn only by women before marriage. The last time a Japanese bride wears these long, swinging sleeves is at her wedding reception. On this occasion, elaborately embroidered furisode, called uchikake, are worn over a matching kimono and serve to display the family's status as well as to keep the bride the visual focus of the reception party.

Broadbent Gallery | Jean L. Druesedow, Director For forty years, from 1962-2002, the Yves Saint Laurent label was one of the most coveted labels in haute couture, available to those 25-women in the world with the means to possess garments of the quality it represented. Superb design and hand workmanship characterize French haute couture, the finest or highest form of sewing, and no atelier excelled that of Yves Saint Laurent at 5 Avenue Marceau, 75116 Paris, France.

Higbee Gallery | Anne Bissonnette, Curator Wearing color is part of the human experience. From time immemorial, colors were an integral part of the fiber of society and their presence, or absence, served a social function. They contribute to making us who we are as individuals and can speak of culture, beliefs and life stages.

Mull and Palmer Galleries | Anne Bissonnette, Curator Janice Lessman-Moss is a weaver who teaches. During the past twenty-three years, she has produced an astonishing body of work while transmitting her passion for the textile arts to students at Kent State University. Her commitment to her work as an artist and educator has required steadfast dedication. Currently Head of Textile Arts and Graduate Coordinator for the School of Art, Professor Lessman-Moss is a native of Pittsburgh. She earned a B.F.A.

Alumni Gallery | Anne Bissonnette, Curator Through the action of heat, moisture, chemicals and pressure, wool is made into felt. With great zeal and imagination, Horst manipulates both the wool fiber and the felted cloth in ways that defy conventions. His medium - wool - has been widely used since prehistoric times and yet few artists today choose to face its challenges. Armed with a strong love of color, sculptural shapes and the natural world, this artist reassesses primitive techniques to create a new and exciting body of work.

Broadbent Gallery | Jean L. Druesedow, Director Linda Allard for Ellen Tracy: Fashioning A Career features designs Linda Allard created during her 40 year career with the Ellen Tracy firm in New York City. Knowing from childhood that she wanted to be a fashion designer, the Doylestown, Ohio, native graduated from Kent State's School of Art and headed for New York with a bus ticket, $200 and a portfolio from her senior show -- the first fashion show held at Kent State.

Higbee Gallery | Anne Bissonnette, Curator Eighteenth-Century Styles (1700-1799) Fashion and decorative arts have long been subject to similar design influences. Although these aesthetic links are not always apparent, they are often part of a greater artistic scheme that applies to other visual arts such as textile design, painting and architecture.

Broadbent Gallery | Anne Bissonnette, Curator Are there surviving garments which can indicate that fashionable clothes were worn in the Ohio territory from 1790 to 1840, and what can these artifacts convey about late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century Ohio history? This research is object-based and focuses on fashionable garments because they make up the majority of the clothing items that survived and were collected.