Patricia Kinsella has had a distinguished career spanning over four decades as a textile designer/artist, educator in textiles and fashion, and academic administrator. Based in Florence, Italy, she has served as the Academic Coordinator for the Florence Fashion Program at Kent State University since 2010. Patricia's extensive expertise includes freelance textile design, with ongoing collaborations with numerous Italian textile mills since 1985. She demonstrates a profound passion for teaching, evidenced by her roles at Kent State University Florence as an Instructor of Italian Fashion and Culture as well as Product Development since 2010 and of Planning and Buying since 2013.
Patricia earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Distinction in Textile Arts from the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1976 and a Master of Fine Arts in Fiber from the Cranbrook Academy of Arts in 1981.
Throughout her career, Patricia has contributed significantly to education, including roles as Assistant Department Head of Textiles and an Instructor of Fabric Styling at Polimoda, Florence, from 1989 to 1994, Instructor of Weaving at Syracuse University Florence from 1995 to 2018, Instructor of Weaving at Studio Art Centers International Florence from 1987 to 2018, and Instructor of Textile Principles at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Florence Program from 1995 to 2016. She has also taught weaving at Fujistudio from 1987 to 2008 and served as Teaching Studio Instructor at The Weaving Factory, Tessilarte, Florence, from 2009 to 2018.
Patricia has curated a number of exhibitions, including the Tuscan section of Futurotextiles, Surprising Textiles, Design, and Art at The Textile Museum of Prato from 2011 to 2012, Superhuman Performance: the Evolution of Textiles for Sports and Artists at Work, New Technology in Textile and Fibre Art at The Textile Museum of Prato in 2008 and 2003, respectively. She has also organized conferences such as La Sfida Ecologico: Verso una Nuova Revoluzione Industriale in collaboration with the Industrial Union of Prato in 2009.
Patricia's work has been featured in many exhibitions, including Intrecci d’Arte al Museo at the Museo Civico d’Arte, Modena, in 2001. Her work has also been showcased at prestigious institutions such as The American Craft Museum and the The Cooper Hewitt Museum, both in New York, USA, as well as the Kunstmuseum in Solothurn, Switzerland and the Museum Industriekultur in Nurnberg, Germany.
Patricia has delivered lectures on various topics, including the High Know How seminar series at the Roberto Capucci Foundation in Florence from 2008 to 2011 and on Research and Innovation: New Materials for Sports at the Textile Museum of Prato in 2008.
Her work is part of esteemed public collections such as The Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY; The Longhouse Foundation, Southampton, NY; The National Design Collection of the Smithsonian Institute, Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New York, NY; First Bank of Boston, Boston, MA; and IBM, Baton Rouge, LA, and Williston, VT.
Throughout her career, Patricia has received awards, including the Design Preis Schweiz in 1994, the Sincol Award in Nagoya, Japan, in 1993, and grants from The New York Foundation for the Arts in 1985 and The National Endowment for the Arts in 1982.
Patricia has contributed to various publications, including essays in catalogues such as Vintage, L’Irresistibile Fascino del Vissuto (2012), Sportdesign, progettare la competizione (2008), and Superhuman Performance: the Evolution of Textiles for Sports (2008), among others. Her artwork has also been featured in the magazines Interior, Interni, Surface Design Journal, Texteil Plus, and Jacquard.
Patricia Kinsella's extensive career reflects her dedication to advancing the field of textile design, education, and curation, making significant contributions both nationally and internationally.