The Inspiring Art of Quilting: Piecing Past & Present

The Raymond James Stutz Art Gallery, in collaboration with Spirit & Place Festival, will host the Inspiring Art of Quilting: Piecing Past & Present – a look at how fabric, sewing and quilting are interwoven into our history. The event gives guests the opportunity to listen, see, and experience an evening of discovery involving dreams, quilting, and stories.

Listen to historic interpreters from Freetown Village as they share tales about the history of African American quilting. Explore quilting displays. The Raymond James Stutz Art Gallery is participating with its invitational, modern fiber arts exhibit with works hung on walls, and suspended from the ceiling, exemplifying one of the most current trajectories of fiber as art.  In this display, antique dresses are presented, as sculpture, as counterpoint to modern fiber art, never intended for body or bed.

Guests will have the opportunity to listen to a presentation of “The West was Won with Needle and Thread,” by Threads of Time Creative Sewing and Retreat Center. Guest speakers include internationally recognized African American historian and folklorist Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi, N.E.A., Bes Lomax Hawes National Heritage Fellow and Sherry McConnell from the Quilters’ Hall of Fame, housed in the Marie Webster House, in Marion, IN. Professional quilters from Quilting by the Stitch will provide a hands-on quilt-block experience that will be assembled into a special Spirit & Place quilt. College Mentors for Kids will display pieced fashions the youth created. Certified quilt appraiser, Caryl Scheutz, will be on-hand to provide informal information for guests who bring their quilts.