|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
AMERICA: From the Heart quilts capture emotions of September 11
January 28, 2003 | |||||
February 23–March 30
AMERICA: From the Heart IU Kokomo Art Gallery Admission to all events and the Gallery is free. • Opening reception, Sunday, February 23, 2–5 p.m. • Lecture “American Spirit: Patriotism and Quilts, 1800–2000” by researcher of American quilt history Xenia Cord, Tuesday, February 25, 7 p.m., and Saturday, March 1, 2:30 p.m. in Kresge Auditorium
The national traveling exhibition AMERICA: From the Heart displays more than 100 emotionally stirring quilts created in the aftermath of the September 11terrorist attacks on the United States runs through March 30 at the IU Kokomo Art Gallery. The show will make its only Indiana appearance in 2003 at Kokomo. Admission is free. The show comes to the campus, in part, because of a class taught here more than two decades ago. Xenia Cord of Kokomo, who helped spearhead the effort to bring AMERICA: From the Heart to Kokomo, first developed an interest in quilts and quiltmaking while teaching women’s studies in 1979–80 with Sue Ridlen, Ph.D., lecturer in folklore. Interest in traditional “women’s” handicrafts was high at the time, Cord said, so she and Ridlen planned a course with hands-on experience in making a quilt. Cord researched the history of American quilt making, leading to her current business as a broker in antique quilts and textiles. Cord was at the fall 2001 International Quilt Festival in Houston when the AMERICA: From the Heart quilts first came together as a spontaneous exhibit. Quilters from across the United States and from several foreign countries had reached for cloth and thread to express their feelings about September 11; the result was nearly 300 quilts unveiled at the festival. “This was the first week of November,” Cord recalled. “It’s amazing that they were put together so quickly.” More than 100 of the quilts became the traveling exhibit now operated by Quilts, Inc. of Houston, Texas. The quilts draw on many themes—sorrow, patriotism, unity, rebuilding. “The quilters’ ways of conceptualizing what was on their minds is intensely different from quilt to quilt,” Cord said. “The impact of the quilts is stunning, even this far removed from September 11, 2001.” Donors supporting the AMERICA: From the Heart exhibit are The Back Door, Greenwood; Marjorie and Francis Chamberland, Menominee, Mich.; Cotton-in-the-Cabin Quilts, Spencerville; Erica’s Craft and Sewing Center, South Bend; Fennell Artworks, Arcadia; Anita J. Gwin, Westfield; Indiana State Quilt Guild; the Kokomo Community Arts Commission; Kokomo Piecemakers Guild; Legacy Quilts, Kokomo; Old Tippecanoe Quilt Guild, West Lafayette; Quilter’s Guild of Indianapolis; and Quilts Plus, Indianapolis. During the run of America: From the Heart, the Art Gallery’s Spotlight windows will contain samples of quilting techniques, created by members of Kokomo Piecemakers Guild. A full-color book depicting all of the quilts in the initial exhibit will be available at the Gallery for $22. Gallery hours are Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; Wednesdays, 10 a.m.–8 p.m.; and Saturdays and Sundays, noon–4 p.m.
|
|
||||