Today's Messages

A unique exhibition is currently on view in the Dr. Margaret E. Bacon Gallery in Upton Hall until November 25. Reflections: A Fiber/Design Concentration Group Exhibition, dedicated to Nancy Belfer, was co-curated by Art and Design Department fibers area coordinator Jozef Bajus and Gerald Mead, ’85, ’86. 

Please join us in the Upton Hall foyer on Thursday, November 20, for an opening reception from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. All are welcome. 

Nancy Belfer (1929–2024) received her M.F.A. in textiles from the School for American Craftsmen at RIT and her B.S. from Buffalo State College where she taught from 1960 to 1996, initially in Art Education, then in Design, where she developed and coordinated the fiber design program. Belfer was designated a Crafts Fellow from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1981, awarded a SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1982, and in 2003 her work was selected for display at the American Institute in Taiwan as part of the State Department Arts in Embassies Program.

She had solo exhibitions at the Burchfield Penney Art Center in 2001 and 2009, where her work is included in the permanent collection, and she has been included in numerous national and regional, juried and invitational exhibitions. Belfer’s work is also in the collection of the Rochester Memorial Art Gallery, Roberson Center of Art and Science in Binghamton, New York, and the University of Nebraska. She authored three books on various aspects of fiber art, as well as numerous articles.

In 2012, initiated by several former appreciative students, the Nancy Belfer Fiber Design Endowed Scholarship was established in her honor. It is awarded annually to a deserving student in the fiber design program, now led by Jozef Bajus, associate professor of art and design.

This exhibition consists of works that upper-level fiber students created with a wide range of materials from Belfer’s studio that were generously gifted to the fiber program. As an additional homage to Nancy Belfer, the co-curators of this exhibition, Jozef Bajus and Gerald Mead ’85, ’86 (one of Belfer’s former students) have contributed new works that they have created utilizing her studio materials.

Learn more about Nancy Belfer here.