Obituary of Nellie Znamierowski
Nell Znamierowski, Amsterdam, NY native-American textile artist, aged 89 of New York City passed away peacefully Thursday, April 29, 2021.
Born Aniela Znamierowska on August 13, 1931, in Amsterdam, NY the only child of Waclaw & Helena Wojnar Znamierowski. Nell graduated from the Wilbur H. Lynch High School in Amsterdam in 1949 after which she moved to Providence Rhode Island to attend the Rhode Island School of Design where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in textile design in 1953. After graduation Nell received a Fulbright fellowship to travel to Finland where she worked in the school of industrial design and developed her interest in rya rugs.
During her career Nell worked as a designer for Regal Rugs and a color consultant for Harrisville Yarns. In addition, she taught at the school of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, where she coordinated a fiber arts program, and at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City as a professor in the Textile/Surface Design Department for 30 years retiring in 1995.
Artist, teacher and author, Nell wrote several guides for weaving, including Step-by-Step Weaving: a Complete Introduction to the Craft of Weaving, 1967 and Step-by-Step Rugmaking: a Complete Introduction to the Craft of Rugmaking,1972. She was also a frequent contributor to numerous textile-based publications, including Craft Horizons, Piecework, American Craft, Handmade, and Fiberarts. Throughout her career Nell lectured and taught master classes in weaving and color design across the USA and Canada.
Works created or developed by Znamierowski can be found in the collection of the Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and in the archives of the Thousand Island Arts Center-Home of the Hand Weaving Museum in Clayton NY. She has been featured in many solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States.
Nell credits her illustrious career in textiles to her mother, Helen Wojnar Znamierowski. Helen was a master needleworker. She arrived at Ellis Island in 1931 from Skoczów, Poland with beautiful, embroidered linens she had made as a young girl. In 1997 these linens were included in an exhibition at the Ellis Island Museum entitled Ellis Island Treasures: What They Carried 1892-1924. Nell cared for her mother in her later years making frequent trips to Amsterdam, NY in-between travels abroad.
During her travels Nell was an avid collector of local art and regional textiles acquiring a small collection of rare Peruvian textiles.
Nell leaves behind many cherished relationships with family, friends and students. She is survived by her cousins in the USA, Constance Bielawski, Fred Bielawski, and in Poland, Barbara Szarek and Krzysztof Golebiowski.
A memorial Mass will take place on Saturday, September 11th ,2021 at 11:00 AM at St. Stanislaus Church, 50-52 Cornell St, Amsterdam, NY, followed immediately by the interment at St. Casimir’s Cemetery, 98 Cemetery Rd, Amsterdam, NY. Her care has been entrusted to the Betz, Rossi & Bellinger Family Funeral Home, 171 Guy Park Avenue Amsterdam, NY. 12010. The service will be broadcast and recorded over ZOOM. On-line guestbook www.brbsfuneral.com.
It was the wish of Nell Znamierowski that any tribute donations be made to the Thousand Islands Arts Center-Home of the Handweaving Museum, 314 John St, Clayton, NY 13624.
https://tiartscenter.org/donate/. ZOOMlink:Nell Znamierowski Funeral Mass Saturday
Time: Sep 11, 2021 11:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89823437129?pwd=b3htckpqMUJmcDQ1Z3ZoY0Z0c1NDdz09
Meeting ID: 898 2343 7129 Passcode: 357000.
Mass of Christian Burial
Burial of Cremated Remains
