Holly Cole is a full-time textile studio artist in Triangle, Virginia. After a long career as a costume designer and artisan for Broadway, regional, and educational theaters in 2016 she retired to a new life of working as an art quilter and surface designer. As a professor she was the head of the costume design and technology programs at Purdue, Cornell, and Ohio Universities, where she taught many of the skills needed for her art quilting including: drawing, painting, composition, dyeing, fabric printing, sewing and designing for theme, story, and character. She holds a BA from Northwestern and an MFA from Carnegie-Mellon Universities in Theater Design. Additional fiber training includes studies at Arrowmont, the J.C. Campbell Folk School, the Crowe Barn, the Quilt Surface Design Symposium, Pro Chemical and Dye, and Kerr Grabowski’s studio.