**News Release Submitted by FiberWorks**

FiberWorks, the Greater Danbury fiber art group founded in 1986, delighted the Rotary Club of Danbury with a presentation and pop-up exhibit at the club’s luncheon meeting Sept. 14 at the Ethan Allen Hotel.

“We are artists who create a diverse range of work by combining fiber and other materials in various ways,” Nike Cutsumpas of FiberWorks told club members. “We enjoy sharing with, learning from and encouraging each other. We might be in a different place in our art but all are enjoying the journey.”

Fiber art incorporates natural materials such as cotton, linen, wool, and silk, as well as synthetic textiles, yarn, cording, threads, and other plant materials. Familiar mediums and methods are basketry, weaving, quilting, book arts, collage, knitting, and paper making, and fiber artists approach their work with imagination, inventiveness, and originality, creating “paintings with a different approach,” Cutsumpas told the club.

These fiber art paintings can be realistic, representational, narrative, symbolic, or abstract. They can tell a story, illustrate a message, or simply create a mood and feeling through colors, composition, and form, Cutsumpas explained.

“Today, throughout America and around the world, there are textile/fiber programs in colleges and universities leading to professional degrees,” Cutsumpas said. “There are groups and organizations around the world supporting and promoting awareness and appreciation through exhibitions, classes, publications, national and international conferences and the meetings of small local groups.”

FiberWorks, which has 15 members and meets weekly, exhibits as a group at least once a year and currently has an exhibit at the C.H. Booth Library in Newtown. The FiberWorks members who joined Cutsumpas at the presentation were Barbara Drillick from Brookfield, Beth Johnsen and Jessica Tell from Oxford, and Suzi Lehmann and Norma Schlager from Danbury. The group also has members from Newtown, Redding, Bridgewater, Sherman, and New Jersey.

**News Release Submitted by FiberWorks**

Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.