Alumni Spotlight
Liesel Dreisbach-Williams '70
Stefan Dreisbach-Williams '00
A Common Thread
Liesel Dreisbach at a loom with her friend Heidi Gerdes Read ’70 and weaving instructor Reiko Sunami. Photo from the 1970 Sargasso yearbook preserved in the Earlham College Archives.
The Dreisbach-Williams family has been woven into the tapestry of arts at Earlham for two generations.
Family matriarch Liesel Dreisbach-Williams '70 would regard that to be an appropriate metaphor, considering one of her first artistic inspirations at Earlham came while sitting at a loom in the College Avenue home of Esther Garner, a faculty widow and weaving enthusiast, learning the basics of weaving. These lessons further developed her interest in textiles — an interest she had for several years already.
Nearly forty years have passed since Dreisbach-Williams first set foot on Earlham's campus, and since then her husband and two children have all studied in Richmond. During those two generations, they've seen the evolution of art education at Earlham and look to where it's going.
In 1966, when Dreisbach-Williams came to the College to study English literature, faculty and students were anxiously awaiting the completion of Runyan Center, which would provide new spaces for art education. Interest in art was growing quickly at the College at that time: in the mid- to late-1960s, a group of students had created a student-run art co-op to sell pottery, photography and other artistic pieces; and the entire community celebrated art and dance during the annual May Day celebration.
During her first year, Dreisbach-Williams took a general art history class, but it wasn't until after she had studied in Italy during the second half of her sophomore year that she made the decision to add a second major to her education.
"I went to Italy and literally experienced art history," she said. "We spent every afternoon visiting all the galleries. By the time I arrived back at Earlham, Runyan had been finished so the arts classrooms were open."
The new art major found herself in those classrooms, toiling over an extensive ikat weaving project — tying the warp, dyeing it, untying and then weaving it into a finished product.
"All of the other arts students had to step over my work," she remembered, laughing.
Thirty years later, her son Stefan Dreisbach-Williams '00 worked and studied in Runyan Center as a theater student.
"I was one of nine theater majors in my year — quite a large number," he recalled. His foray into performing arts began when he took a costume design class; like his mother before him, he had an interest in textiles and clothing. While reviewing a costume rendering one day, he was struck with the desire to wear it. That was enough to inspire him to audition for the role.
After graduation, he worked with such well-known groups as Touchstone Theatre, The Living Theatre and Bread and Puppet Theatre before earning an M.A. in theatre education at Emerson College. He is now director of education at the award-winning Spokane (Wash.) Civic Theatre.
Liesel Dreisbach-Williams established herself in the field of education — teaching studio art at a private school in Pennsylvania, then at The Friends School in New Jersey before working at the Staten Island Academy in New York. She earned her M.A.T. in social sciences from Fairleigh Dickinson University before she took a position at the Brooklyn Friends School.
During that time, Dreisbach-Williams dragged her great-aunt's floor loom around with her as she moved from place to place — her son remembered it being a constant presence during his younger years and mentioned memories of crawling under it.
During that time, the entire family attended the Rahway & Plainfield Monthly Meeting. Stefan Dreisbach-Williams remembered his Quaker upbringing fondly.
"Our Quaker foundation influenced us on how we think and how we view the world," he explained. "Stillness is a home for us."
Earlham is a home for them as well.
"Earlham is a tight little world," Stefan Dreisbach-Williams said. "Earlham and its people make a really strong community."
Also part of that community are Liesel Dreisbach-Williams' daughter Susanna Williams '97 and family patriarch Roger Dreisbach-Williams. Susanna Williams earned a degree in politics, and while she didn't focus on art like her mother before her and her brother years later, she did echo their detours into the field of education — even working briefly at the Brooklyn Friends School where her mother had at one time been employed. Roger Dreisbach-Williams was the last to come to Earlham for study, taking classes at Earlham School of Religion nearly ten years ago.
During the last forty years, the Dreisbach-Williams family fit effortlessly into the Earlham community. Liesel Dreisbach-Williams' parents had become Quaker in response to their belief in pacifism, so the College's ideology was attractive when she was deciding where to study. Roger Dreisbach-Williams studied at Antioch College, becoming Quaker after observing consensus as a decision-making process during his classes. The two heads of this family were introduced at a Quarterly Meeting and later reconnected during volunteer activities.
The members of that community are woven into Earlham's art tapestry whether they realize it or not. Liesel Dreisbach-Williams pointed out that while Earlham's mission as a liberal arts institution means it must strike a balance with the sciences, arts and other concentrations, the arts program at the College has always sought to influence all students. The arts promote and support that creative part of every student.
"There are people who don't work in the arts, but the arts help inform their lives because of what they experienced at Earlham," she said.
It's that Earlham experience that has remained with the Dreisbach-Williams family, whether they studied art or politics or theology.
"Our family is an Earlham family," Stefan Dreisbach-Williams affirmed.
His mother agreed. "It's who we are."
— Ellen Blevens
Development Communications and Stewardship Coordinator
(Posted July 1, 2009)
Read what Stefan Dreisbach-Williams '00 has to say about the arts and Earlham.
Return to Alumni Spotlight Home Page
Earlham Home |
Alumni Home |
Site Index |
Copyright
Web Editor |
Page updated: July 1, 2009