Last week I joined Laura Hopper and several other Chicago Modern Quilt Guild members at the MSU Museum in East Lansing, MI. Laura had arranged a curator led tour of the current exhibit, Quilted Conversations, and a behind the scenes tour of the museum storage facility. The Quilted Conversations exhibit is designed to help raise awareness of civil and human rights and the quilts are all of that theme.
The exhibit is designed to be interactive and spark conversatin. There is a table with paper and pencil for those who are not viewing the show with someone that they can talk to. The "conversation" can then take place between people who have visited and are visiting the exhibit. It was interesting to read the notes that have been left and really made clear to me the power of art to bring deep rooted emotional reactions.
The One for Eric G by Chawne Kimber, 2015
The quilt on the right in the above photo is Quilt for Equality, by Eric the Quilter.
The One for Eric G - detail, by Chawne Kimber.
I was thrilled to see one of Kathryn Clark's foreclosure quilts in person.
Flint Foreclosure Quilt - detail by Kathryn Clark, 2013.
Here are a couple of other quilt detail shots.
I Want to Stitch - detail, by Bethan Ash, 2009
From Vision to Victory - detail, by Carolyn Crump, 2009
After viewing the exhibit we went to the storage facility to see some of the collections and how things are stored. The curator had two quilts out for our viewing pleasure. The first was this 1896 Temerance Quilt.
Liberty Tree ("abstain from strong drink")
Mrs S K Daniels, Mach 1896
The temperance quilt was pulled back to reveal The Sun Sets on Sunbonnet Sue. I remember this quilt and all the controversy around it back when it was making the show rounds.
The Sun Sets on Sunbonnet Sue, Seamsters Local #500, 1979
My favorite block is the Three Mile Island version of Sue's demise.
Three Mile Island
Seamsters Local #500
Thank you, Laura, for arranging a wonderful day at MSU and allowing me to join your group! I may have to become a long distance member of the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild!
Edited to add -
Some of the quilts in the Quilted Conversations exhibit will be on display at the Pick Museum in the fall. Here's what Laura Hopper, who is a curator there, has to say about that exhibit.
"The exhibit is called "Quilts and Human Rights," it's a traveling exhibit from the MSU Museum that has been expanded for our upcoming installation to bring the exhibit up to the present day. It was be open at the Pick Museum of Anthropology at Northern Illinois University from September 5 - December 8."
