Elsa Marie Sreenivasam
Elsa Marie Sreenivasam (??-2017) grew up in a small community in Duluth, MN. There was a great freedom for her to explore the surrounding areas, enjoy nature, use her imagination, and sketch her impressions of the world around her. Her interest in art continued to grow through the years. She graduated from St. Scholastica College in Duluth with a degree in art, which later honored her with a lifetime achievement award. She discovered the vitality and promise of fabric art, which led to further study and a graduate degree in textile arts.
Sreenivasam taught textile art classes at the University of Kansas. After realizing the need for more communication between artists and industry, she co-founded the Surface Design Association and helped organized the first surface design conference in the United States. Today, it is an active, national organization.
At Iowa State University, as Art and Design Professor, she continued her teaching textile art courses and pursued her passion for textile art history. She was awarded two Fulbright Research Grants to study the traditional textile print, dye, and embroidery processes in India. It was a happy, eye-opening, cultural learning experience, providing opportunities to learn ancient techniques and to collect antique fabrics, which became a museum-quality collection. Her research resulted in the publication entitled The Textiles of India: A Living History.
Sreenivasam supported Textile Center, a national center for fiber arts, in Minneapolis, MN. Textile Center honored her with a Spun Gold award in 1999, awarded for a lifetime of dedication to the textile arts. In 2012, Textile Center hosted an exhibition of her vast Indian textiles collection.
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Associate Professor Emerita of Art and Design Elsa Marie Sreenivasam of St. Paul, Minnesota, died Wednesday, March 15, 2017, in Green Valley, Arizona. She is survived by her husband, Dharma; five children and three grandchildren.
Sreenivasam received a Bachelor of Arts in 1951 from St. Scholastica, Duluth, Minnesota, and a Master of Arts in art education in 1969 from the University of Minnesota. She taught fiber art and design at the University of Kansas from 1973-1976 and at Iowa State University from 1977 until her retirement in 1992. She received two Fulbright Study/Research Awards to study traditional textile printing, dyeing and embroidery processes in India, which resulted in her publication, “The Textiles of India: A Living History.” She helped found the Surface Design Association in 1976 and served as its first president.
