Community Art Educator. Fashion Designer. Textile Artist.
I'm Emily Bennison, a passionate artist and community fashion design educator. I hold a Bachelor of Science in Fashion Design From Drexel University and a Master of Arts in Art Education from Rhode Island School of Design. As a Fashion design educator, my pedagogy and curriculums focus on inclusive fashion design, radical acceptance of plus-size bodies, and technical excellence through interdisciplinary experimentation. Through my educational initiatives at the Worcester Art Museum and Artist Exchange, I aim to foster creativity and inclusivity, empowering individuals to express themselves authentically through art.
In my art practice, my grounding motto is “You have to make bad art in order to make good art”. Experimentation and play are always in my beginning process. There’s something sacred in the art of production and producing art for the sake of trying.
The body is a canvas for narratives woven with threads of personal recollections and collective experiences. My work is intimate and intuitive; an ongoing conversation with me and the viewer and the wearer.
My art is craft and made from techniques passed down to me by the women in my life. Each creation is a testament to the beauty of diversity, a homage to the rich history of women sewers before her.
As an artist, I also seek to minimize my impact on the environment and work with found materials and scrap as much as possible. Art is not neutral.
Art is activism.