Join the Nordic Folklife project for a wide-ranging conversation with celebrated fiber artist Lesley Darling, current MA candidate in Material Culture and Textile Studies at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Darling will speak about the scope and nature of her work, and answer questions about her perspectives on traditional art, sustainability, folk art pedagogy, place, and more. Event is free and open to the public!

Lesley Darling’s passion for fiber and folk life has led her back in time and across the globe: from turning tree sap into printed dyes in India; learning a dying language from elders in Sweden; to incorporating traditional beading with contemporary pageantry. Lesley focuses on the importance of traditional community structures in textile and craft, including use of local resources, skill specialization and sharing, and the sense of place we achieve through our material culture.

Her practice includes an artistic examination of material culture and shared identities. When art is for both ornamentation and survival, function is as equal a necessity as beauty. Through studying specific techniques and regionalisms, material quality, methods of spinning fiber, natural dyes, and embellishment, Lesley finds peace in “traditional ways,” demonstrating that humans have much more in common with each other than we think. She firmly believes that her art should leave no waste or footprint behind, working exclusively with natural, biodegradable, and non-plastic media.

Specializing in land-based and locally rooted practices, she teaches workshops for beginners and advanced students with humor while sparking their curiosity for fiber and folk culture.  Based in Nebraska, Lesley is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation.

Co-sponsored by CSUMC, Nordic Folklife Project, GNS+, and the Folklore Program