Born in 1934 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Cynthia Schira has been at the forefront of the craft renaissance for over 25 years. She established a modern context for weaving while staying true to traditions and maintaining a provocative physicality. She was an early proponent of computer-based weaving programs, and many of her recent works have referenced digital information. She was educated at the Rhode Island School of Design, L’Ecole d’Art Décoratif in Aubusson, France, and received her MFA from the University of Kansas, Lawrence, in 1967. Her work is in dozens of collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Her many honors include two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation award in 1966. Cynthia Schira lives and works in Westport, New York. She received the American Craft Council’s Gold Medal in 2000.