Renate Maile-Moskowitz

Renate Maile-Moskowitz’s artistic background is multi-cultural, multi-disciplinary, versatile, and crosses many boundaries. German born, raised and self-trained in just about every textile tradition, the nearly forgotten techniques of felt making and silk/ sericulture production became an early research and teaching pursuit. A Fulbright Scholarship in Dance brought her to the US where new venues surfaced to apply and fuse her experiences and interests in unique Fiber, Textile and Costume fields. Creating costumes for the Shakespeare Theater, the Washington National Opera under general director Placido Domingo’s artistic leadership, teaching Fiber Arts workshops nationally and internationally, creating performance art pieces, consulting with museums and colleges, collaborating with Discovery Channel, the Textile Museum and Smithsonian’s Educational Outreach Programs are just a few noteworthy applications. She concurrently creates her own work for galleries and shows, teaches and publishes her findings and creations in magazines and books. 

Renate’s teaching methods and personal creations have led the way on novel, eclectic and profoundly specialized techniques along with adaptations to ancient, traditional, or personalized felting customs. Her aid in translating visions, traditional concepts, themes, communal or curriculum topics into hands-on encounters, while (indirectly) inoculating the world with a passion and understanding of Felt(ing) as unique medium and form of Art, culminated 2018 in the commission of her large scale pedagogical Felt anthology “UrFelt”, on permanent display at the Textile Museum in Washington DC. Her long standing devotion to broaden Felt , Silk and other natural Fiber’s public awareness, besides it’s recognition as a textile art form, have gained her global recognition and various awards. She has been sought out as one of the few “multifaceted and seasoned” fiber and textile artists/teachers /collaborators/consultants/ historians and researchers globally.