Sherri Smith

Born 1943 in Evanston, Illinois, Sherri Smith is a fiber artist and professor of weaving and textile design at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Throughout her near 50 year career, Smith has had a significant impact on the field of fiber art, both through ambitious experimentation of weave structure and though teaching. Her work has charted diverse strands of techniques and influences; complex compositions of interlaced cotton webbing, to strip-woven wall-hangings with patterns derived from astronomy, mathematics and the sciences. Smith earned a BA at Stanford University in 1965 and an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1967. Soon after graduate school, Smith worked as a designer for Boris Kroll Fabrics and Dorothy Liebes, Inc. In 1969 Smith’s work was included in the landmark exhibition "Wall Hangings" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Her work has been acquired by several important collections, including Museum of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Dubai Airport Hotel, IBM in New York, the Museum of Art and Design in New York, and the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. 

Watch a video and read about Sherri in American Craft. View more information on Sherri in our digital collections. Learn more about the 2012 American Craft Council award winners. Join us at SOFA Chicago this fall for "Among Fellows," a special exhibition of the winners' work.