Bequests, Awards and Grants

The Weavers’ Guild of St. Louis (WGSL) promotes and supports the Fiber Arts in the greater St. Louis area and beyond through its sponsorship of lectures, workshops, and awards for exhibits and personal development. Financial support for these endeavors is provided by the generosity of our members, former members, and friends whose donations and bequests established and sustain these funds.

The Doris Oglander Fund was established in 2006 and is used, as specified in Doris’ generous bequest, for the purpose of bringing distinguished guest artists to St. Louis to speak and/or conduct workshops.

WGSL Education Grant - supports the study of weaving and fiber arts at conferences, classes and workshops. It can be applied for by guild members in good standing and in accordance with our 501 (c)(3) status by nonmembers as well.

The Tribute Fund Awards - provides grants to arts organizations to bestow awards for exceptional fiber art entries in juried exhibits held in the St. Louis area or at the Midwest Weavers Conference; grants to individuals for the pursuit of fiber-related education and research; WGSL memberships to local college and university students in fiber arts; and educational enrichment of the membership through purchases of books and equipment. These awards are named in honor of a member of our guild. Full profiles of our named awards are found below.

Applications for grants to provide WGSL Fiber Arts Awards are now being accepted from non-commercial organizations located in or sponsoring an exhibit in the greater Saint Louis area (within 50 miles of Saint Louis). Previous partner organization for exhibition awards: Art St. Louis and Surface Design Association/Edwardsville Art Center

An application form can be found using the WGSL Awards Grant Application link below.

Please note we have two awards, the Zella Rubin Award for Fiber Art and Connie Hilgert Education Grant, require a specific application which is found later in this page.

 Elsie Bell Award for Excellence in Handspinning

This award created in 1997, pays tribute to a former member of the Guild who was also an award-winning spinner.

Elsie Bell was an active spinner and spinning teacher who considered imagination and innovation as important as technical expertise. Before joining the Weavers’ Guild of St. Louis in 1967, Elsie led an interesting life following her husband to remote places and had spent many years in South America. Over the years, Elsie presented several programs about her travels and experiences, including “Weaving in Peru,” “World Craft Conference in Lima,” and “Highland Ecuador.” A new generation of spinners interested in recycling and green yarns might wish to travel back in time to 1978, when Elsie gave a mini-workshop on creative spinning, including plying, shredding and using old yarns to create new ones.

 Libbie Crawford Award for Loom Controlled Handweaving

Libbie Crawford was a professional weaver and teacher of weaving. She was a graduate of the University of Oklahoma and was introduced to weaving at a rug store in Boone, North Carolina where she had stopped to buy a rug, discovered that the shop was a weaving school, and returned for weaving instructions. She subsequently studied with Rupert Peters at the Penland School of Handcrafts, with Elizabeth Lord at Berea College, as well as with others too numerous to mention in Sweden and the United States. She taught at Berea College, many places in the St. Louis area, and in her own studio in Kirkwood, MO.

Libbie was a founding member of the Midwest Weavers’ Conference and for many years served on the Board of Directors of the Handweavers’ Guild of America and as its Missouri state representative. She joined the Weavers’ Guild of St. Louis in the early 1950s and loved all types of yarns, especially green ones, and weaving and weavers until her death in 1983.

​The Libbie Crawford Award for Loom-Controlled Hand-weaving was created in 1985.

Margaret Grant Memorial Award for Elegant Handwoven Fashion Fabric

This award pays tribute to a former member whose distinctive and quietly elegant personal style was always evident in her hand-woven fabrics.

Margaret Grant was born and raised in Australia, received her psychiatric social work degree in London, and then worked at Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. From the late 1960s until her death in 1993, she actively participated in many facets of the Weavers’ Guild of St. Louis. She held elective offices, served on committees and juries, was instrumental in establishing a scholarship fund, and made great effort to involve new weavers in the Guild. Margaret's specialty was weaving clothing with fine threads. We honor her memory with an award which recognizes that elegant fashion fabric developed from a simple structure complements a garment's design.

Her obituary in the Guild newsletter included the following story which is vintage Margaret. One time in Chicago at Convergence Margaret was in the front passenger seat of a shared taxi. She immediately identified the driver as a Zimbabwe native from his accent and soon they were chattering away about his native country. She loved to share discoveries about world arts, events and people, but in Guild study groups she shared giggles like a schoolgirl.

The Margaret Grant Memorial Award for Elegant Handwoven Fashion Fabric (woven using no more than four shafts) was created in 1995.

Lucy Primm Award for Fiber Art

Lucy Primm was an avid and active weaver and a Lifetime Honorary Member of the Weavers’ Guild of St. Louis. In the 50 years that she was a member of the Guild, she was involved in various activities on many levels. When she learned that some with day jobs could not attend the meetings, which were then held on Tuesday mornings, she organized a group that met in the evening and served as its president for a decade. In 2011, just months before she passed away, she organized a Swedish Weaving Study Group that is still active and growing. For many years, she operated her own business, The Weavery, selling Scandinavian weaving yarns that were then not readily available locally or online.

Ever modest, she never touted her accomplishments, but her mentoring, weaving advice, wit, charm, and sense of humor will be long remembered and appreciated, especially by the once neophyte weavers who benefitted from her acumen.

This award pays tribute to a former member of the Guild who was not only an accomplished and productive weaver, but who was also a mentor to young fiber artists.

The Lucy Primm Award for Fiber Art was presented at Future Tense 2019 exhibit held at the Edwardsville Art Center, September 6 through October 11, 2019.

HELEN WENZEL AWARD for HANDWOVEN TAPESTRY

Helen Wenzel was a multitalented weaver of textiles ranging from fashion fabrics to tapestry. She was also a Lifetime Honorary Member of the Weavers’ Guild of St. Louis (WGSL). In her almost 60 years of membership, she served in many capacities from President to committee member to just helping out when needed. Throughout the years she participated in many WGSL-sponsored activities, including the annual holiday fashion show where she modeled her stylish and well-crafted garments with her usual elegance and grace. She was an inspiration to the members of her Tapestry Study Group for her technical expertise and artistic creativity, as well as for her loyal support of the group and its endeavors.

When Helen joined the Guild in the early 1950s, only accomplished weavers were allowed to attain full membership; Helen achieved that status within just a few months after joining. In the 1970s, after a by-law change to allow other fiber artists into full membership, she supported the new, non-weaving members and actively participated in the activities they introduced into the Guild’s repertoire. Helen’s participation in crafts organizations extended beyond the St. Louis area and included American Craftsman's Council, Missouri Craftsman's Conference, and the Midwest Weavers’ Association. Her work was shown in local and national exhibits and, in 1957, she won three ribbons at the International Show of the Women's Institute in New York.

In 2010, Helen was honored for her contributions and service to the WGSL, and now her friends, family and fellow weavers remember her with this award for weavers sharing one of her true passions—tapestry.

The first Helen Wenzel Award for Handwoven Tapestry was presented at the Fiber Focus 2015 exhibit held at Art Saint Louis, August 8 through October 8, 2015.

 CONNIE HILGERT EDUCATION GRANT

The Connie Hilgert Education Grant Fund was established through the generosity of Connie’s family and friends and pays tribute to our very special former member. Connie’s more than 80-year association with the Weavers’ Guild of St. Louis (WGSL) began in the early 1930s, when she joined the 8-year-old Guild as a young student. She began her study of weaving under the expert tutelage of Sara Mattsson at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts at Washington University and continued to learn throughout her lifetime by taking additional classes and workshops in the United States and abroad. During her professional weaving career as director of the St. Louis Area Weaving Project of the depression-era WPA, she supervised the weaving of a blanket for the Missouri Exhibit at the 1939 World’s Fair in the city of New York. Her award-winning “1840s Weaver’s Cottage” with its miniature scale weavings, baskets, furniture, and even a warped loom is, in itself, a lesson into a special area of early American history. This diorama now resides in the collections of the Missouri History Museum. Connie passed away in January 2015 at the age of 103, and her undiminished wit and mental acuity, plus her lifelong love of fibers and traditional weaving will continue to awe and inspire friends and Guild members, even those who heed a less traditional muse.

In recognition of Connie’s love for weaving and her expertise therein, at least three Education Grants in Connie’s memory will be awarded. Intermediate or advanced weavers who are WGSL members in good standing and, in accordance with the Guild’s standing as a 501(c)(3) organization, non-members, are invited to apply for a Connie Hilgert Education Grant.

 Zella Rubin Award for Fiber Art

Zella Rubin was a versatile and productive weaver and a Lifetime Honorary Member of the Weavers’ Guild of St. Louis. During her many years as a member of the Guild, she served as President and on several committees, participated in the annual Guild sale, was instrumental in organizing a tapestry study group, and willingly shared her expertise with young fiber artists.

Her weaving repertoire was extensive, and her creations, whether garments from her own handwoven fabrics, silk talaysim (prayer shawls), fiber art for the wall, or miniature doll-house rugs, were beautifully designed and meticulously executed and finished.

Zella found tapestry weaving highly satisfying because it allowed her to combine her life-long passions for drawing and fiber.

Zella felt that there should be an emotional connection between artists and their subjects, as exemplified by the keepsake tapestry portraits that she wove of three of her grandchildren, and by the torah mantles and silk talaysim which she created and which now envelop scrolls in the US, Israel, and Norway, and drape worshipers across the country. Even after illness had limited her physical activities, her artistic sense never wavered.

This award pays tribute to Zella Rubin, a former member of the Guild who was highly proficient in many areas of the fiber and textile arts, and who was always willing to share her expertise and knowledge with others, especially young fiber artists.

College and university students enrolled in fiber arts courses are welcome to apply for the Zella Rubin Award. A Zella Rubin application form can be found using the Zella Rubin Award Application link below.