Janice Lessman-Moss, professor of textiles, is retiring this summer after more than 40 years of service at the School of Art. Since being hired as a full-time faculty member in 1981, she has been the driving force behind the progress and innovation of textile arts education at . A beloved professor, Lessman-Moss has touched many students’ lives by sharing her knowledge, skills, and love for weaving and textile history with those who have been fortunate enough to have her as a teacher and a mentor.
Lessman-Moss was recognized as a Distinguished Scholar at the university in 2000 and received a Distinguished Teaching Award in 2018. She is strongly committed to education in textile art and design and maintains a vibrant studio in the School of Art, working with textiles majors and minors from tangential fields such as Fashion, Architecture and Interior Design. Students have an opportunity to learn a breadth of traditional weaving techniques and explore digital design and production using TC1 jacquard looms and Pointcarré® software.
As a member of the textile community, Lessman-Moss served as External Relations Director for the Textile Society of America from 2006-2010 and is a Founding Member of the Midwest Fiber Art Educators Network (MFAEN.) She has also curated various exhibitions of textiles and pattern including: “The Poetics of Pattern,” Riffe Gallery, Columbus, Ohio; “Binary Fiction: Digital Weaving 2010,” the Eisentrager-Howard Gallery, University of Nebraska- Lincoln; and “Circles, Cycles and Structures,” Firelands Association of the Visual Arts (FAVA), Oberlin, Ohio, to name a few.
In 2021, she and her husband, professor emeritus Al Moss, established the for students pursuing an education in textiles at the School of Art. This scholarship, along with her forty-year guidance as a leader in her field, has cemented her legacy as one of Kent State’s most impactful professors.