Cal State L.A. Professor Carole Frances Lung—an artist, activist, and scholar living in Long Beach—was recently selected as one of only 16 artists to participate in the 2014 John Michael Kohler Arts Center’s prestigious Arts/Industry Program.

As an arts/industry resident at Kohler Center, Lung will receive travel and housing coverage, a stipend, featured exhibitions at the center, and 24–7 access to the Kohler Co. Foundry and Pottery facilities. Upon completion of the residency program, she will donate two pieces of her work, one to the Kohler Co. and the other to the John Michael Kohler Arts Center.

“I am honored and excited to be spending the summer pouring iron at the Kohler Foundry,” said Professor Lung. “I will be working on a new body of work, exploring the idea of recasting textile histories.”

Lung, who teaches the Fashion and Textile option in the Department of Art at Cal State L.A., currently maintains the Institute for Labor Generosity Workers and Uniforms in the Art X complex in downtown Long Beach.

Through her alter ego, “Frau Fiber,” Lung utilizes a hybrid of playful activism, cultural criticism, research and spirited crafting of one-of-a-kind garment production performances. In addition, she investigates the human cost of mass production and consumption, addressing issues of value and time through the thoroughly hand-made construction and salvaging of garments.

Her performances have been exhibited at Jane Addams Hull House Museum, Craft and Folk Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, Sullivan Galleries, School of the Arts Institute of Chicago, Ben Maltz Gallery, OTIS College of Art and Design, Catherine Smith Gallery, Appalachian State University in Boone, NC, and the Ghetto Biennale in Port Au Prince, Haiti.

Lung has been published in the following: Chicago Arts News, American Craft Council: Shaping the Future of Craft, Art in America, and Art Papers. She has also presented lectures at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Feminism and Co Series, Craftivsim: Creativity and Ingenuity Symposium at Haystack Mountain School of Craft, and at the Textile Society of America symposium.

Her accolades include the Kohler Arts and Industry Residency, Craft Creativity and Design Center Grant, CSULA creative leave grant 2014, creative mini grants, the Louis Comfort Tiffany award nomination, the At the Edge Gallery 400 award, and the Fred A. Hillbruner Artist Book Fellowship.

Now in its 41st year, Arts/Industry is a residency program of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center made possible by major support from Kohler Co. http://www.jmkac.org/