Sustainable Making: Demos and Discussion with Anna Kristina Goransson, Laura Tanzer, and Sarah Haskell

The Eliot School of Fine & Applied Arts will be partnering with Surface Design Association (SDA) to host artist demos and a panel discussion with Northeast fiber artists Anna Kristina Goransson, Laura Tanzer, and Sarah Haskell as part of Gather 2025. GATHER is an exciting month-long event scheduled for April 2025, presenting the vibrancy, breadth, and challenges of fiber and textile arts in the Greater Boston area. 

The artists will demonstrate key techniques in their work featuring sculpting with remnant textiles, three-dimensional wet felting, and Kami-ito, the Japanese art of spinning paper into thread, respectively. The panel discussion will explore the theme of sustainability as a common thread connecting the artists’ work as well as the Eliot School and SDA’s missions.

 

SCHEDULE

1-2:30P — Demos in the Sewing & Art Room

2:30-2:45P — Break 

2:45-3:30P — Discussion Panel with Valarie Poitier

3:30-4P — Q&A / Mingling

 

Anna Kristina Goransson is originally from northern Sweden and moved to the US in 1985. Even at a young age Anna Kristina knew she was an artist and pursued that dream at Rhode Island School of Design for her undergraduate degree in furniture and later received her Masters from UMass Dartmouth in Artisanry/fibers. She had the honor of being an artist-in-resident at various institutions including OCAC and her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. Anna Kristina has artwork in numerous private collections including Meditech. She has been published in the magazine Fiber Art Now as well as in books, including 500 Felt Objects and Worldwide Colours of Felt. Anna Kristina is an artist, teacher, and curator living in the Boston area.

 

 

Born and raised in New England, Sarah Haskell has a BFA in Textile Design from RISD and a Masters of Art/Healing from Wisdom University. Exhibitions include: The September 11th Memorial and Museum, NYC, NY; The Maine Jewish Museum, Portland, ME; The Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA; Museum Texas Tech University, Lubbock TX ; Artists’ Museum, Washington, D.C.; the Portland Museum of Art, Portland ME. Sarah is a 2021 Fellow for the Maine Arts Commission. Residencies include: Monson Arts, Monson ME, Monhegan Island, ME; Hewnoaks, Lovell, ME; Vermont Studio Center, Peters Valley Crafts Center, NJ; Acadia National Park, ME; Hambidge Center, Rabun, GA.

 

 

Laura Tanzer is a sustainability artisan, entrepreneur, textile artist, clothing engineer, and educator. She works with textiles, sculpting wearable art for the body. She digital prints her art photographs on textiles and uses those prints to create wearable art. She uses remnants, vintage, and dead stock—all are natural fiber materials, such as cotton, silk, and linen. She creates almost no waste and teaches others how to do the same. Her workshops are 'small batch'—limited to less than 10 per class—which affords participants individual attention. She teaches skills for working with textiles. She has degrees in Fashion Design, as well as Fashion Merch, from FIT, a BS and MBA from NYU, and PhD from the University of Arizona (UA). She has taught at UA since 2004 and taught workshops since 2017.