Arts Directory

About

In a career spanning over 40 years, Ellen Kochansky has promoted the arts, craft traditions, and environmentally responsible practices. She founded the non-profit Rensing Center to further these goals. As a fiber artist, designer and quilter, her work has stretched those definitions to include sculptural and mixed-media art, public and private commissions, and community-based and site-specific installations. For her company, EKO, she designed and manufactured custom quilts from 1989 to 2004. She has been an American Craft Council Trustee (1989-1993), an NEA American Canvas Panelist (1997), and a founding Director of Ripple Effect Sustainable Design Group (1999-2001). Twice chosen Craft Fellow by the SC Arts Commission, she currently sits on the Executive board of the SC ArtsAlliance. Ellen has shared her experience through teaching, including Penland, Arrowmont, and the Innovation Institute (McColl Center, Charlotte, NC), and as a juror for national art shows such as Cherry Creek, Evanston, and American Craft Council, as well as the SC Governor’s Awards. Her work is included in The Mint Museum, The American Museum of Art +Design, and the White House Collection, and has been cited in various book, articles, and television programs, notably CBS Sunday Morning and the book Six Continents of Quilts.