Betty Vera grew up in the Midwest and attended Southern Illinois University before graduating from The Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, with a B.F.A. in drawing and painting. She subsequently studied textile design at the Fashion Institute of Technology and Parsons School of Design in New York. Drawing upon both her painting background and textile training, she began combining warp painting and tapestry weaving techniques to create two-dimensional art textiles.
More recently, she received her M.F.A. in Studio Art from Montclair State University, where she expanded her studio practice into fiber sculpture and digital weaving technology, and was named Outstanding Graduate Sculpture Student. She also has studied Jacquard weaving at the Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles and at The Jacquard Center in Hendersonville, North Carolina. She currently lives and maintains her studio in the rural Hudson Valley.
Her work is in both corporate and private collections, has been exhibited widely—from the American Craft Museum to galleries, museums and art centers around the country—and has been featured in American Craft, Fiberarts, Surface Design, Shuttle Spindle & Dyepot, and Interiors magazines, as well as several editions of the Fiberarts Design Book; Weaving for Worship, by Lucy Brusic and Joyce Harter; and Marypaul Yates’ book, Fabrics: A Guide for Interior Designers and Architects.
Formerly an art and craft book editor, Betty Vera subsequently worked as a weaver in the Michelle Lester Studio in New York and also maintained her own studio on Union Square. She has taught fibers classes at Montclair State University and the Fashion Institute of Technology, as well as intensive workshops at craft schools such as Penland, Peters Valley, and Harrisville Designs; the Handweavers Guild of America’s biennial Convergence and the Mid Atlantic Fiber Association, Intermountain Weavers, New England Weavers’ Seminar, and Eastern Great Lakes Fiber conferences; and fiber guilds throughout the United States.
The Empire State Crafts Alliance twice awarded her grants through its New York State Craft Artist program; she has received project and exhibition grants through Artists Space; she was awarded a work-scholarship residency in 1994 at the Vermont Studio Center; and in 1997, she was the recipient of a Ruth Chenven Foundation Award.
More recently, she received her M.F.A. in Studio Art from Montclair State University, where she expanded her studio practice into fiber sculpture and digital weaving technology, and was named Outstanding Graduate Sculpture Student. She also has studied Jacquard weaving at the Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles and at The Jacquard Center in Hendersonville, North Carolina. She currently lives and maintains her studio in the rural Hudson Valley.
Her work is in both corporate and private collections, has been exhibited widely—from the American Craft Museum to galleries, museums and art centers around the country—and has been featured in American Craft, Fiberarts, Surface Design, Shuttle Spindle & Dyepot, and Interiors magazines, as well as several editions of the Fiberarts Design Book; Weaving for Worship, by Lucy Brusic and Joyce Harter; and Marypaul Yates’ book, Fabrics: A Guide for Interior Designers and Architects.
Formerly an art and craft book editor, Betty Vera subsequently worked as a weaver in the Michelle Lester Studio in New York and also maintained her own studio on Union Square. She has taught fibers classes at Montclair State University and the Fashion Institute of Technology, as well as intensive workshops at craft schools such as Penland, Peters Valley, and Harrisville Designs; the Handweavers Guild of America’s biennial Convergence and the Mid Atlantic Fiber Association, Intermountain Weavers, New England Weavers’ Seminar, and Eastern Great Lakes Fiber conferences; and fiber guilds throughout the United States.
The Empire State Crafts Alliance twice awarded her grants through its New York State Craft Artist program; she has received project and exhibition grants through Artists Space; she was awarded a work-scholarship residency in 1994 at the Vermont Studio Center; and in 1997, she was the recipient of a Ruth Chenven Foundation Award.
Biography