Gaines Center to host artist Kimberly English for 2026 Clark Lecture

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 13, 2026) — The University of Kentucky Gaines Center for the Humanities will host artist and educator Kimberly English as the 2026 Thomas D. Clark Lecturer in the Humanities.

English’s lecture, “The Shape of What’s Gone: Craft, Labor, and the American South,” is 4 p.m. Thursday, April 23, in Room 109 of the Gray Design Building. The event is free and open to the public, though registration is encouraged.

Selected by University of Kentucky faculty member Rebekah Radtke, this year’s Bingham Seminar instructor, English’s lecture complements the seminar’s theme, “Sustainable Design Futures Lab: Appalachia x France.” The course examines sustainable design practices in post-mining communities in Appalachia and France, exploring how design can respond to environmental and cultural challenges across global contexts.

The Clark Lecturer is chosen annually by the Bingham Seminar instructor, with the invited speaker offering insight connected to the seminar’s topic. The lectureship supports both a public lecture and engagement with students in the seminar.

In her talk, English will explore how textile practices can interrogate American mythologies of labor, heritage and belonging, particularly in the South. Drawing on traditional weaving structures, her work reconfigures patterns through interruption and absence, using cloth as a lens to examine the relationships between land, labor and identity.

English’s approach challenges nostalgic narratives of “heritage” craft by highlighting the histories of extraction, dispossession and ecological strain often embedded within them. Through both material exploration and critical reflection, she positions textiles as a site where personal and collective histories intersect.

English earned her Master of Fine Arts from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was a Carolina Digital Humanities Fellow, and holds an undergraduate degree in textiles from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the Spartanburg Art Museum, The Delaware Contemporary and the Museum of Craft and Design.

She has received numerous residencies, including at the McColl Center, Penland School of Craft and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and her work has been featured in publications like The New York Times, Burnaway and Design Milk. English currently runs Tabby Studio, a weaving residency based in Canton, North Carolina.

The Thomas D. Clark Lectureship, administered by the Gaines Center for the Humanities, brings distinguished scholars, artists and practitioners to campus to engage with students and the broader community. The lectureship is part of the center’s broader mission to foster interdisciplinary exploration and connect academic inquiry with real-world perspectives. 

Registration for the lecture is available through Eventbrite. 

Founded in 1984 by a generous gift from John and Joan Gaines, the Gaines Center for the Humanities functions as a laboratory for imaginative and innovative education on UK’s campus. The center is devoted to cultivating an appreciation of the humanities in its students and faculty. The Gaines Center embraces varied paths of knowledge and particularly strives to integrate creative work with traditional academic learning.     

For more information on the Clark Lecture or Bingham Seminar, call the Gaines Center at 859-257-1537 or email Associate Director Chelsea Brislin at clbris4@uky.edu.