KU News Release

LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas will host the 2011 annual conference of the Kansas Art Quilters this weekend.

The conference will include a public lecture featuring textiles artist Barbara Lee Smith and presentations by Smith and KU faculty.

Smith’s public lecture will take place at 1 p.m. today at Room 421 in the Art and Design Building. The lecture was organized by textiles faculty in the Department of Visual Art and the department chair, Mary Anne Jordan, in coordination with the Kansas Art Quilters. Smith creates pieces on a Web-based industrial fabric called Lutradur, onto which she paints, collages and stitches.

The conference presentations will center around the theme of Compositional Strategies and Personal Vocabularies, from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. April 30 at the Sabatini Multicultural Resource Center. Smith and Carol Ann Carter, professor of painting, will be presenters. The conference will be chaired by Sharon Bass, associate professor emeritus of journalism.

Founded in 2001, Kansas Art Quilters is an organization dedicated to the creation and promotion of contemporary art quilts. Members include artists, instructors, collectors and others who are involved with the art quilt community.

The Art and Design Building is at the northeast corner of 15th Street and Naismith Drive. Visitor parking is available at the Allen Fieldhouse Parking Garage, 1501 Irving Hill Road. For more information about Kansas Art Quilters, visit www.kansasartquilters.org/index.htm.