Longtime Visiting Professor Wins Craft Educator Award

This year, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Fibers and Textile Studies Warren Seelig received the distinct honor of being named a James Renwick Distinguished Craft Educator. According to the Renwick Alliance website, “The JRA Distinguished Craft Educator Award is based on the recipient’s reputation for excellence and innovation in education, influence on future artists and significant contributions to American education in the craft field.” The Renwick Alliance supports the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery, which showcases American crafts. 

Biennially, between three and five awardees are nominated and then selected by a jury of peers. “These were distinguished artists working in craft media who are affiliated with among the most innovative craft programs in art schools throughout the U.S.,” he noted. “The award is not only recognition for me; it will also highlight the careers of so many of the students with whom I have worked, who have themselves been recognized as highly successful and innovative as artists, educators and scholars.” 

In 1979, Seelig joined the Philadelphia College of Art (now UArts) as chair of Fibers. Even after moving to Maine with his wife, Sherrie Gibson, 10 years later, Seelig was so dedicated to education at UArts, he began a weekly trip to Philadelphia from Maine each spring semester—which he has continued to do for almost 25 years. 

Seelig has shared his knowledge at numerous other institutions, including Haystack Mountain School of Craft in Deer Isle, Maine; Rhode Island School of Design in Providence; Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore; and Maine College of Art in Portland, among numerous other institutions.

But UArts students have always distinguished themselves. “I have always been especially attracted to UArts students with whom I have worked over the years,” Seelig said. “They are students who are tenacious, hungry to learn, have street smarts and often possess a kind of grit not seen at other schools.”

Though Seelig has a long history of inspiring students, his students inspire him, too. “Being around students helps to keep my mind solvent and indirectly encourages me in maintaining a fluid  evolution of ideas,” he says. “My students, I think, keep me from taking myself too seriously.”

Image above: A detail of Warren Seelig’s “Colored Light/Suspended Animation,” which was commissioned in 2015 by the Oppenheimer Group at World Financial Center in New York City. Photo by Jack Ramsdale