Congratulations to
2024 McKnight Fiber Artist Fellows:
Amber Jensen & Rick Kagigebi

Fellowship Period:
March 1, 2024 – February 28, 2025

Meet the Fellows

Amber Jensen

Amber Jensen, Minneapolis, is a weaver whose weavings and drawings start small and build over time into their own densely-layered language. Through this unique form of communication, her work reflects meaningful memories and deeply-felt experiences that are both personal and universal. Of her work, she says,

Rick Kagigebi

Rick Kagigebi, Detroit Lakes, is an Ojibwe (Lac Courte Oreilles) blanket maker, creating appliquéd mural blankets where a story is told conveying Ojibwe cultural values. The ability to make blankets, and what he has been shown that turns into blankets – all of it is a gift that he has been given. The cultural influence in his artwork is a significant factor, and in giving away blankets for healing, each blanket finds where it belongs. In 1980, he made his first blanket and gave it away at ceremony, and hundreds upon hundreds of blankets have since followed.

Meet the Jurors

M. Rachael Arauz

M. Rachael Arauz is an independent curator of modern and contemporary art, with a Ph.D. in art history from the University of Pennsylvania. She has organized exhibitions and contributed to museum catalogues in the United States, Mexico, and Europe for institutions including DeCordova Sculpture Park + Museum, Boston University Art Gallery, the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Cranbrook Art Museum, and the Indianapolis Museum of Art. She has presented major solo exhibitions of artists Keith Haring and Julianne Swartz, and her wide-ranging curatorial interests have spanned topics such as mid-century abstraction, Mexican photography, and weaving in contemporary art. Arauz was co-curator of the 2019 exhibition In the Vanguard: Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, 1950-1969 for the Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine. In addition to serving as juror and visiting critic for various organizations, Arauz has written for Hyperallergic about her museum experience as a “minority intern” in the 1990s, and was a Visiting Scholar at Virginia Commonwealth University in autumn 2023 in the Department of Craft/Material Studies.

Rowland Ricketts

Rowland Ricketts utilizes natural dyes and historical processes to create contemporary textiles that span art and design. Trained in indigo farming and dyeing in Japan, Rowland received his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2005 and is a Professor in Indiana University’s Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design. A recipient of United States Artists & Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowships, his work has been exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Seattle Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art- Jacksonville, and the Denver Botanic Gardens.

Namita Gupta Wiggers

Namita Gupta Wiggers is an educator, writer, curator, and artist based in Portland, OR. Wiggers founded and directed the MA in Critical Craft Studies, Warren Wilson College from 2017-2023. Wiggers directs and co-founded Critical Craft Forum, and served as the Director and Chief Curator, Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland, OR from 2004-2014. Her most recent publication is This is not a Retreat, co-edited with Ben Lignel for The MACR Papers (online). Her research has been supported by a Senior Fellowship, Smithsonian Institution; Fields of the Future Fellowship, Bard Graduate Center; Inaugural Writer-in-Residence, Center for Art and Research, University of Oregon; Curatorial Residency, Norwegian Crafts; International Programme for Visual and Applied Arts, Sweden; the Institute of Museum and Library Services; and The Center for Craft, Asheville, NC.

About the Fellowship

Fiber art is thriving in Minnesota, and the field’s growth as an artistic discipline now includes the McKnight Artist Fellowships Program, which provides two $25,000 fellowships to be awarded each year to individual midcareer fiber artists living and working in Minnesota.

In addition to the $25,000 unrestricted award and public recognition in support of their studio work and practice, McKnight Fiber Artist Fellows receive:

Critiques/studio visits with curators and critics from the field.
Exhibition at the end of the fellowship period in the galleries at Textile Center.
Professional photographic documentation of work at the end of the fellowship period.
Participation in a public discussion or presentation of their work and creative practices.
Professional development support, such as attending conferences, workshops, and marketing advice for their work; plus consultation sessions from artist career consultants at on topics of their choice.
Participation in a 1 – 2 week artist residency in partnership with McKnight and .
Membership to Textile Center and access to Textile Center’s resources, including library of more than 32,000 books and periodicals, state-of-the-art dye lab, and artisan shop opportunities.

The intent of the McKnight Fellowships for Fiber Artists is to recognize and support talented Minnesota fiber and textile artists whose work is of exceptional artistic merit. These fellowships are in support of individual artists who are at a career stage beyond emerging. Fiber Artists, as defined for the purposes of this fellowship, are artists who use textile and fiber arts materials, processes, histories, traditions, and/or sensibilities in their artistic practice throughout the conception, execution, and resolution of their work. The fellowships are funded by the McKnight Foundation and administered by Textile Center.

ABOUT THE MCKNIGHT ARTIST FELLOWSHIPS PROGRAM

Founded on the belief that Minnesota thrives when its artists thrive, the program is one of the oldest and largest of its kind in the country. Support for individual working Minnesota artists has been a cornerstone of the program since it began in 1982. The McKnight Artist Fellowships Program provides annual, unrestricted cash awards to outstanding mid-career Minnesota artists in 15 different creative disciplines. Program partner organizations administer the fellowships and structure them to respond to the unique challenges of different disciplines. Currently the foundation contributes about $2.8 million per year to its statewide fellowships. To learn more about McKnight Artist Fellowships, visit: .

ABOUT THE MCKNIGHT FOUNDATION

The McKnight Foundation, a Minnesota-based family foundation, advances a more just, creative, and abundant future where people and planet thrive. Established in 1953, the McKnight Foundation is deeply committed to advancing climate solutions in the Midwest; building an equitable and inclusive Minnesota; and supporting the arts in Minnesota, neuroscience, and international crop research.

A focus on racial equity is at the heart of the McKnight approach to funding. Along with Textile Center, our organizations value diversity and equity, seeking to be inclusive and accessible to all applicants. We welcome and encourage applications from artists representing diverse cultural perspectives.

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Congratulations to 2024 McKnight Fiber Artist Fellows: Amber Jensen & Rick Kagigebi

Fellowship Period: March 1, 2024 – February 28, 2025