QuiltVoices, an exhibition featuring the work of twenty-five contemporary quilters from throughout the U.S., will open on Sept. 9, 2005, at the University Gallery at the University of Delaware.
In 1999, recognizing the fragility of the bonds between quiltmakers and their quilts, The Alliance for American Quilts, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, in partnership with the Center for Material Culture Studies at the University of Delaware initiated Quilters’ S.O.S. - Save Our Stories (Q.S.O.S.). The mission of The Alliance is to be a catalyst for bringing together institutions and individuals from creative, scholarly and business aspects of quilts to advance the recognition of quilts in American culture using state of the art technology. Q.S.O.S’s mission is to record, preserve and share the stories of quiltmakers and their quilts at the Center for the Quilt Online, www.centerforthequilt.org.
QuiltVoices draws on the Quilter’s S.O.S. (Save Our Stories) project in addressing the relationship between the quilts and the narratives told by their makers; excerpts from these interviews will be featured in the accompanying text to the 25 quilts on view. A brochure will be available.
Madge Ziegler, Juanita Yeager, Katharine Brainard, Adrienne Yorinks, Ellen Kochanszky and Jean Ray Laury are among the artists whose works and stories will be represented. The exhibition also gives special attention to the works of quiltmakers from Delaware, including Edna Kotrola, Celeste Kelly, Arlene Favreau Psyher and UD alumna Teresa Barkley. Two quilts from Gee’s Bend will also be on view. A variety of events, including a quilting bee and a full day symposium are being planned: for information, see: http://www.museums.udel.edu/museum/museum_info/programs-museum.html
The exhibition at UD will be open from Sept. 9-Dec. 9, 2005, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.; Wednesdays, 11 a.m.-8 p.m.; and Saturdays and Sundays, 1-4 p.m.
The public is invited to a reception for the UD exhibition on Sept. 16, from 5-7 p.m. at the University Gallery in Old College on the Newark campus.
The Historical Society of Delaware presents a concurrent exhibition that spans 30 years of Teresa Barkley’s work, featuring more than 40 quilts she designed and made. Born and raised in Delaware, Barkley began sewing at age 5 and completed her first quilt by age 15. That quilt was first exhibited at the Delaware State Fair, where it won a ribbon and launched her lifelong passion for quilt-making. She studied fashion and textiles at UD and later became a pattern maker.Barkley’s quilts show a number of influences that have become her trademark style: scrapbooks, collage, use of vintage fabrics, found objects, and materials not usually thought of in quilting, such as clothing tags and bank bags. All her quilts are narrative in nature either telling a specific story, commenting on an American value or situation, or commemorating a particular event.
In addition to her finished quilts, the exhibit will also include objects representing Barkley’s artistic life, such as ribbons won at the state fair, family scrapbooks that inspired her, early unfinished quilts, samples of her collection of vintage and found materials, and at least one “work in progress.”
The Delaware Historical Society is located at 504 Market St. in Wilmington, Del.. Hours are Monday through Friday, noon to 4 p.m., and Saturday 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. Admission is $4 for adults, $3 for seniors and students, and $2 for children 2-18. There is no charge for children under 2.
Contact:
Janis A. Tomlinson, Ph.D.
Director of University Museums
209 Mechanical Hall
University of Delaware
Newark, DE 19716
Phone: 302-831-8003
