Westminster Artist Josephine Lobato Honored With Fellowship In Washington, D.C.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (CBS4) - A Westminster woman was honored Wednesday night by the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, D.C. Josephine Lobato, embroiderer of traditional colchas, is a 2019 National Heritage Fellow.
The fellowship is the nation's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. Lobato was honored at an awards ceremony with National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Mary Anne Carter and members of Congress.
Two years ago, Lobato was nominated for the fellowship by Suzanne MacAulay a folklorist at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs.
For more than 30 years, Lobato has created embroidered renditions of cultural memories, enactments, and folk histories. Lobato uses one of the oldest stitches in the world, the colcha stitch, which is a couching stitch associated with the settler culture of the Southwest.
Lobato uses the colcha stitch to create pictorial narratives about Hispanic life in the San Luis Valley in southcentral Colorado. CBS4 talked with Lobato in June after she learned she would be a 2019 fellow.
"I was surprised when (Sen.) Michael Bennet called me," Lobato said. "He said don't hang up on me it's not a scam."
Lobato received $25,000 for the honor and one of her Colchas will hang in the Smithsonian.
"I'm only the second person in Colorado to get the award so it does mean a lot," said Lobato.
Lobato's work is not available for purchase. She told CBS4 in June the embroidery will stay in her family.
