Sarah Mills, assistant professor of Art History at San José State University, specializes in histories of modern textile design and contemporary art. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses across departments of Design and Art and Art History. She writes on intersections between weaving, technology and contemporary art, with specific interests in the work of midcentury American weavers Anni Albers, Marianne Strengell and Dorothy Liebes, and 21st century conceptual material weavers and wearable makers. Her work has been supported by fellowships at the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences in Sydney (2022), the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (Chester Dale Fellow, 2018 - 2019) and the Graduate Center, City University of New York, where Dr. Mills completed her M.Phil and PhD. Sarah has lived in Corrientes, Cape Town, Konstanz, Berlin, and Minsk and hopes to spend time in Asia soon.
Contact:
sarah.mills@sjsu.edu
Upcoming Speaking Events:
February 17th, 2024, CAA Chicago, “Fictitious Devices: The Extra-Embodied Experience of Kate Hartman’s Wearables,” in the panel “Post-Rationality”
April, 2024 (date tbd), “Beyond Soft: New Textile Media,” Thompson Gallery, San José State University
Past Speaking Events:
October 2023, OCAD University Toronto Canada (in conjunction with research at the Social Body Lab), “Wearables, Textiles, and the Material-Media Interface in Contemporary Art”
June 2023, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland Ohio, “More Than Just Thread Control: Contemporary Weaving and Critical Distance”
October 2022, Prairie Ronde Gallery, Vicksburg, Michigan, “E-textiles: Into the Matrix”
June 2022, Museum of Applied Art and Science, Sydney, Australia, “Love Me in My GloWeave”
November 2021, Marist College, Poughkeepsie, New York, “What Is Unique About College Art Galleries”
October 2021, Philosophia Honors Club, Westchester Community College, “Gender Fluidity in Art”
March 2021, Art Gallery, Westchester Community College, Interview with Jean Marc Superville Sovak and Vinnie Bagwell on making monuments
January 2020, Visual Arts Center, New Jersey, “The History of Silk Weaving in New Jersey and its Relationship to Contemporary Art”
March 2019, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, “Making the Modern Textile: Dorothy Liebes and the Handwoven Look”