The poetry excerpts that visitors will experience, meticulously sewn into once-loved aprons, tablecloths, and everyday furniture, were written by Colorado poet Kathleen Willard. The verses explore everyday misogyny and harmful commentary directed at women against the backdrop of refurbished domestic materials. Willard's complete poems from which the featured excerpts were drawn will be available in the exhibit for viewers to read.

Domestic Bliss honors trailblazing women—including Shirley Chisholm, Gloria Steinem, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg—whose legacies inform and inspire the ongoing movement for gender equity. Additionally, the installation references the Declaration of Sentiments, the foundational 1848 text drafted at the Seneca Falls Convention, which asserted women’s rights as American citizens. Over 175 years later, its demands remain poignantly relevant. 

Economos and Willard state that Domestic Bliss invites viewers to reflect on both the progress made and the injustices that persist, urging collective responsibility in the continued fight for equity.

How to see Domestic Bliss: Visitors can experience Domestic Bliss with the purchase of a General Admission ticket to the museum, available anytime during our public hours. General Admission permits visitors self-guided access to the first floor of the museum.

About the Artists

Bethany Economos: Bethany is a mixed-media artist whose practice centers on fiber and textile-based work. She holds a degree in Fibers and works primarily with cloth, yarn, and thread to explore the place of fiber art within the contemporary art world. After relocating to Fort Collins, Colorado, during the COVID-19 pandemic, she used this period of disruption to build a cohesive body of work. 

Material shortages during the 2020 shutdown prompted Bethany to incorporate upcycled and unconventional materials into her practice, leading to a “make-do-and-mend” approach that remains central to her work. This aesthetic references the historical and contemporary ingenuity of women, highlighting the resourcefulness, adaptability, and often-unrecognized labor embedded in everyday acts of making.

Through embroidery, beading, and other hand-embellishment techniques, she intentionally preserves traditional craft processes while situating them within a contemporary mixed-media context.

Her recent work investigates the concepts of “women’s work” and the “feminine arts,” challenging long-standing hierarchies that have relegated these practices to lesser status than their male-dominated counterparts. By reframing fiber-based craft as a critical and powerful artistic language, Bethany invites viewers to reconsider its relevance and value within the contemporary art landscape. More about her work at somonocestudio.com. 

Kathleen Willard writes poetry that explores her journey as a feminist, landscapes, spirituality, and ecology with luminous clarity. Willard is the author of Cirque &; Sky, This Incendiary Season, The Next Noise Is Our Hearts published by Middle Creek Publishing and Electric Grace by Luna Press. Her forthcoming collection, A World on Fire, will be published by Nirala Publications in New Delhi in Spring 2026.

A recipient of a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship to India and a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, Willard has attended the BreadLoaf Writers’ Conference and the Disquiet International Literary Festival in Lisbon. Willard has also held residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Breckenridge Creative Arts, and Mission Street Arts in New Mexico.

She holds degrees from Windham College, Middlebury College, and Colorado State University, and publishes an online newsletter, Occasional Papers. More about her work at kathleenwillard.com.