Diane Sheeehan

Background & Interests:

Diane Sheehan earned her MFA in Textiles from Indiana University in 1972.  Since then she has held positions on the faculty of Purdue University’s Creative Arts Department, the summer faculty of the University of Michigan’s School of Art as well as Penland School of Crafts, and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts.  She has been a member of the University of Wisconsin faculty since 1990, teaching courses in textile design.  In 2005 she was awarded the Emily Mead Baldwin-Bascom Professorship in the Arts by the UW-Madison Arts Institute.

With well over 100 national and international exhibitions, she has also lectured in England, Ireland and Japan.  Her book, “Ideas in Weaving” co-authored with Ann Sutton serves as a text for weaving classes in the USA and Europe.  She was co-author of a catalog for the Ann Sutton retrospective exhibition, part of the British Crafts Council’s “Show 5” project.  The recipient of National Endowment for the Arts fellowships in 1988 and 1992, she has also been awarded grants by Arts Midwest, the Lily Endowment, Purdue University and the University of Wisconsin Graduate School.  She has served as juror for national and regional exhibitions and has been a grants panelist for the Illinois Arts Council, the Wisconsin Arts Board, the Indiana Arts Commission, the Ohio Arts Council, the South Carolina Arts Commission, and the Southern Arts Federation.  Her current work uses computerized weave systems to produce works which are both narrative and sculptural.