Workshop
September 12, 2024
9:30am-4pm
Boiceville, NY
Felting Workshop with Brigitta Váradi
River Valley Arts Collective is delighted to announce a skill-share with artist Brigitta Váradi who will teach her unique process of large scale wet felting using raw wool.
A community-based practice in many regions, including Central Asia and Mongolia, this form of felting is done each spring by farmers and artisans who process freshly shorn wool while exchanging stories, news and singing to the rhythm of preparing and rolling the material. Working primarily and intensively with wool since 1986, Brigitta has developed her technique based on these traditional felting methods combined with her own practice honed over many years of extensive research, residencies and apprenticeships.
River Valley Arts Collective is offering this workshop in partnership with the Al Held Foundation. It is free of charge and specifically designed for artists who live and work in the Hudson Valley, have ancestral ties to the region, or are connected to this area through art residency programs. Lunch, materials, supplies, and tools will be provided.
Brigitta Váradi is a Hungarian-born self-taught artist who lives and works in Pine Plains, NY. This past spring, she presented the exhibition A cloak of red, slow as a Carpathian rock curated by Marisa Espe for River Valley Arts Collective at the Al Held Foundation, Boiceville, NY. Other recent solo and two-person exhibitions include KAPOW Gallery, New York, NY; Civitella Ranieri, Umbria, Italy; Burlington City Arts Center, Burlington, VT; Westbeth Gallery, New York, NY; Budapest Gallery, Budapest, Hungary; and Leitrim Sculpture Center, Leitrim, Ireland. Váradi’s work has been included in group exhibitions at the Katonah Museum, Katonah, NY; Spartanburg Art Museum, Spartanburg, SC; Equity Gallery, New York, NY; Marfa Open, Marfa, TX; Hunt Museum, Limerick, Ireland; National Design and Craft Gallery, Kilkenny, Ireland; and Culturel Irlandais, Paris, France, among others. Váradi has been awarded residencies at MacDowell, Peterborough, NH; the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY; Civitella Ranieri Foundation, Umbria, Italy; Saltonstall, Ithaca, NY; TransBorder Art, Governors Island, NY; NARS Foundation, New York, NY; The Marble House Project, Dorset, VT; Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY; LOCIS-European Cultural Program, Sweden, Poland, Ireland; and Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Leitrim, Ireland; among others. Váradi is a 2021 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Interdisciplinary Work.
If you are interested in participating please email info@rvacollective.org with a short one or two sentence statement of interest noting your connection to the Hudson Valley. If you have a website or Instagram feed, please include a link or address. Write “Felt Workshop” in the subject line.
Because space is limited, we cannot accommodate groups. If we are not able to invite everyone who is interested in participating, we will create a waiting list and, if needed, schedule another workshop. Invited participants will be contacted with additional information about workshop location, lunch options, and other pertinent details.