Born in 1941 in New York, New York, Jason Pollen is a fiber artist and professor emeritus at the Kansas City Art Institute in Missouri. Pollen studied art at the City College of New York – completing a BFA in 1964 and a MFA in painting in 1966. He first became interested in fiber while traveling in Paris after completing his studies. Out of money for paint, he instead stitched thousands of collected twigs onto the surface of a canvas. Fiber quickly became his primary focus, and – though he has maintained an experimental approach to the medium – he is particularly known for his surface-design techniques and his work in silk. Pollen taught briefly at the Royal College of Art in London, the Pratt Institute, and Parsons School of Design before accepting a position at the Kansas City Art Institute in 1983. In 1997, he became chair of the fiber department – a position he held until his retirement in 2010. Pollen has also worked as a textile designer for Jack Lenor Larsen, Oscar de la Renta, Lanvin, and others. He mounts regular solo exhibitions and has been included in many group exhibitions around the world. His work has been collected by institutions, including the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City and the Renwick Gallery in Washington, DC. Pollen received the Outstanding Artist/Educator Award from Penland School of Crafts in 2012, and he was elected a Fellow of the American Craft Council in 2006.