Terese Agnew

Terese Agnew was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1959. Her parents encouraged her artistic tendencies when she was young, but it was her step-father in particular who had the strongest influence on the direction of Agnew's work. As a labor organizer and political activist, he was familiar with labor history and the struggles that workers worldwide face. He introduced Agnew to these issues, which then became a central aspect of her subject matter.

From 1981 to 1984, Agnew studied sculpture and painting at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and then embarked on a career as a public sculptor and fiber artist. In 1991, she began making art quilts in addition to sculpture. Her quilts can be found in many permanent collections including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C; the Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin; and the John M. Walsh III Collection of Contemporary Art Quilts, New Jersey. Currently, she is working on a three-dimensional stack of fabrics representing geological time; it is scheduled for installation in January 2010 at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Iowa.