The Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft will host a gallery talk titled The Life and Work of Alma Lesch by Alma’s long-time friend and local artist Dennis Shaffner on Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 6:00pm. The lecture is free for Museum members and $5 for non-members, and is part of the Museum’s Collecting Kentucky exhibition which is on display through March 12, 2011.

During Louisville's fiber art renaissance, Alma Lesch shared a 30 year open-door friendship with Dennis Shaffner until her passing in May of 1999. He will offer insights into the private world of Shepherdsville's internationally recognized fiber artist.

“Alma was my mentor, my teacher and my friend, and everyone who knew her has a story to share and many are uniquely hilarious in spirit,” says Shaffner. “Still largely unknown in her Shepherdsville community after a productive 50 years transforming American textile art by hand, Alma Lesch commanded a no-nonsense attitude that provided maximum studio time for production of her hundreds of fabric collages, sculptures and banners. Alma's signature invention, the Fabric Portrait, evolved out of America's roots in stitchery and "crafts" or "ladies' work" once common to every female as a means of home keeping. Fiber has emerged as the popular art of our time, after once being called 'mending', which is now obsolete in our throw away lifestyle.”