Patricia Kinsella
Patricia Kinsella
Patricia Kinsella earned a BFA in Textile Arts at California College of Arts and Crafts and an MFA in Fiber at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Michigan. In 1985, she opened a textile design studio in Prato, Italy, and continues to work for many local mills. Since 1989 she has taught at numerous Florentine educational institutions, including Polimoda, Syracuse University, SACI, IED and FIT Florence. In 2010, she was appointed coordinator of the fashion program at Kent State University Florence, where she also teaches the courses Italian Fashion and Culture, Product Development, and Merchandising Planning and Buying. Her work has been exhibited internationally, receiving awards from Design Preis Schweiz, The New York Foundation for the Arts, and The National Endowment for the Arts. Her textiles are included in such public collections as the Museum of Arts and Design, NY, and the National Design Collection of the Smithsonian Institute, Cooper-Hewitt Museum, NY. Reflecting her ongoing interest in the intersection of art, technology and function in the creation of new fabrics, she has curated at the Textile Museum of Prato the exhibitions Artists at Work, New Technology in Textile and Fibre Art (2003), Superhuman Performance; the Evolution of Textiles for Sports (2008) and the Tuscan section of Futurotextiles, Surprising Textiles, Design and Art (2011).