Betty Leacraft

Betty Leacraft has been invited by Ultra Silk Gallery to participate in a three person group exhibition titled "Joyful New Beginnings: Mixed Media, Fiber and Textile Works”, where she intends to present artworks expressing the joy of honoring Ancestors who are familial as well as those who are not related by blood. This opportunity will allow Betty to premiere her first fine art silkscreen print from the Brandywine Workshop and become eligible to be considered for exhibition opportunities that usually exclude fiber/textile artists. The WOO Grant will help Betty with finishing funds for various costs associated with preparing for this exhibition.

Betty Leacraft will organize Know Your Legal Rights! information sessions at the Community Education Center (CEC). These tenants' rights workshops will be led by a housing attorney from Community Legal Services (CLS) and will focus on tenants' rights issues, remedies, and will include dialogue with Betty about tenant/landlord experiences. West Philadelphia artists and members of the community who attend will participate in two interactive hands-on textile arts workshops. The participants will acquire skills to produce original designs on cloth that will then be incorporated into an informational wall hanging during a public reception at the CEC celebrating the participants' creative efforts. After display at CEC, the wall hanging will be shown at several community centers in West Philadelphia. 

Betty will use textiles to engage master instructors of West African dance/drum traditions in the craft hand-dyeing. These African inspired textiles will be created for their studio home at the Community Education Center. Two hand-dyeing workshops will result in wall banners that will serve as visual inspiration to dance/drum children, teens and adult students. In July 2014, Betty will travel to South Africa and upon return, conduct a presentation to this community about her trip from an artist perspective. 

Betty is a mixed media fiber artist, educator, lecturer, and curator who attempts to create opportunities for under-served, under-resourced ethnic communities and individuals through interactive, hands-on, fiber art projects where participants share untold stories, acquire new artistic skills, and develop respect for cultural diversity in our communities.

Her signature workshop series African Inspired Design uses art as a tool of communication to provide a framework for dialog about cultural awareness, and shared cultural connections. Since the early 1990s, Betty has taught and lectured numerous students and individuals in residencies and workshops in the Tri-state area with a focus on textile arts in diverse communities, schools, correctional facilities, shelters, re-entry and recovery programs, senior residences and centers, libraries, colleges, and museums.

Betty will create Gifts From Mother Earth which will marry the folk art of gardening with quilting and fabric design. Celebrating West Philadelphia, youth and elders will share stories of medicinal plant remedies and build a forum for their preservation. Creating these quilts will empower the community and allow the memories of women and family members who posses the knowledge of medicinal plants and their uses to continue on through generations.

Support for participation in traveling exhibition of contemporary quilts by African American artists at The Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC and The Renwick Museum, Washington DC, February and October 2000.