Join us for an Open House with artist and Paper Institute Guest Instructor, Lee Running. The foundation of Lee Running’s practice as a sculptor and public artist is the aesthetics of handmade paper. This material has fundamentally shaped her approach to other materials and processes. Drawing on two decades of practice, Running reveals how paper's transformative properties inform her work with cast iron, enamel, glass, and bone. Her deep respect for craft aesthetics provides a framework for understanding material potential across disciplines. The presentation includes process documentation of installations, sculpture, collaboration, and drawing that bridge traditional practice with innovative contemporary applications.
Running’s papermaking practice began at Dieu Donné, where she was an intern, and later the studio assistant in the late 1990’s. She completed an apprenticeship in Traditional Hand Papermaking at the University of Iowa Center for the Book (2001-2003), where she later earned her MFA in Sculpture with a Graduate Certificate in Book and Paper Arts. Running's expertise in sculptural paper has led to teaching appointments at Penland School of Crafts (2015, 2024) and Oxbow's Paper and Book Intensive (2012). Her sixteen-year tenure as Professor of Art at Grinnell College (2005-2021) allowed her to further develop her cross-disciplinary approach. Running has been an artist in residence in the Arts/Industry Foundry program at John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Ucross Foundation, and Opera Omaha. Permanent installations can be found at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, and Bernheim Arboretum in Kentucky. Her work has been exhibited at the Kewitt Luminarium, Kaneko, and the Des Moines Art Center. In 2025 her work will be featured in the "Made in the Plains" exhibition at the Joslyn Museum, and in a monumental installation in the Omaha Central Library.