Background
Reed, Fran Ann was born on June 12, 1943 in La Jolla, California, United States. Daughter of Charles and Mary Alice (Colt) Williams.
Reed, Fran Ann was born on June 12, 1943 in La Jolla, California, United States. Daughter of Charles and Mary Alice (Colt) Williams.
Reed, a competitive swimmer, graduated from Louisiana Jolla High School in 1961. Reed graduated from University of Oregon with a Bachelor of Science degree in art education.
The couple had two children, Collin and Jocelyn. She began teaching weaving at an art school in Eugene, Oregon, after her graduation. She relocated to Fairbanks, Alaska, in 1969.
Once in Fairbanks, Reed began teaching qiviut weaving (musk ox wool) at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
She also worked as a lecturer at Alaska Pacific University, where she taught Alaska Native arts for fifteen years. Additionally, Reed worked for the Alaska Marine Highway Elderhostel program
Reed began working with dried fish as an art material in 1986 using dead "river kill" fish collected from the Chena River. Southcentral Alaska offered more numerous, diverse fish species than those found near Reed"s former home in Fairbanks.
This allowed her to incorporate more fish skins in her art and expand her interests.
Through her art, Reed became an expert on the use of fish skins and their uses, especially in the traditional indigenous art of Alaska, such as baskets. She extensively researched Alaskan fish skin and their uses independently. Her unique art and expertise attracted attention from throughout Alaska and the rest of the United States.
This led to a number of awards and honors.
Reed"s fish skin baskets and other crafts were featured in the book, Arctic Clothing, which was published by the British Museum Press. She received the Lila Wallace-Reader"s Digest Artists at Giverny fellowship in 1996, which allowed her to study at the home of Claude Monet in France for three months.
She also received the Rasmuson Foundation and Western States Arts Federation fellowships during her career. In 1989, Reed was adopted into the Tsimshian Killer Whale clan, which is also known as the Gispwudwada.
Despite being ill with cancer, Reed spent four days in 2008 at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington District of Columbia Reed aided Smithsonian staff and curators to restore and identify animal skins in the museum"s Native Alaskan collection.
Death
Fran Reed died of cancer on September 11, 2008, at the age of 65, in Anchorage, Alaska. Reed"s final scholarly paper, entitled Embellishment of the Alaska Native Gut Parka, was presented posthumously at the 11th Biennial Textile Society of America Symposium in Honolulu, Hawaii, by Audrey Armstrong.
Public art selection panel Alaska State Council Arts, Fairbanks, 1977-1986. Trustee Anchorage Museum History and Art, 1993-1995. State representative Handweavers Guild American, Fairbanks, 1984-1988.
Member American Craft Council, Friends of Fiber Arts International, Northwest Designer Craftsmen.
Married Richard MacArthur Reed, August 2, 1964. Children: Collin, Jocelyn.