More than 30 quilts, many from around the country, will be featured at a new exhibit titled "Master Quilts Past and Present: Preserving the Voice of America's Quiltmakers," at the Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell College, Grinnell Iowa.
The exhibit, featuring 10 antique quilts borrowed from national collectors, 12 contemporary quilts by nationally known quilt artists, and 10 quilts created by Iowa quiltmakers, will open Friday, May 30, and will run through Sunday, July 27. An opening reception will be on Friday, May 30, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. in the rotunda of the Bucksbaum Center for the Arts, Grinnell College.
The exhibition will coincide with the two-day quilt show sponsored by the Jewel Box Quilters Guild of Grinnell on June 13 and 14 at Grinnell Middle School.
Amy Henderson '94, a doctoral candidate in American art history at the University of Delaware, curated the exhibition. She selected the first two groups of quilts from quilts featured in an exhibition sponsored by The Durst Organization in New York City in 2001. The antique quilts highlight traditional patterns such as "New York Beauty" and "Mariner's Compass." Among the contemporary quilt artists are Jean Ray Laury, Yvonne Porcella, and Gretchen Echols.
The Iowa quilts were selected specifically for this exhibition from works submitted to a jury consisting of Karen Musgrave, owner of Free Spirit Designs and a member of the board of directors of the Alliance for American Quilts; Nancy Polster, associate professor of Art and Design at Iowa State University, and Janice Tauer Wass, Curator of Decorative Art at the Illinois State Museum.
Among the Iowans selected to display quilts are Tomme Fent (Sioux City), Catherine Noll Litwinow (Bettendorf), and Priscilla Sage (Ames).
A special feature of Master Quilts Past and Present will be excerpts of interviews conducted with all the living quiltmakers in the exhibition by the Quilters' S.O.S.--Save Our Stories, a volunteer group dedicated to recording the stories behind quilts. The interviews with the Iowa quiltmakers mark the first Q.S.O.S. interviews done in Iowa.
Also on view at the Faulconer Gallery will be Balancing Act, photographs by Meighan Gale, and Heavy Has Debt, a site-specific installation by Phoebe Washburn. The three exhibitions together, all by women, offer insights from various perspectives into the creative process of using daily life in art.
Summer hours for the Faulconer Gallery are daily from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with extended hours until 8 p.m. on Thursdays. Call 641-269-4660 for information on special programs or to schedule a tour, or visit the website at http://www.grinnell.edu/faulconergallery.
The Faulconer Gallery is located at the corner of Park Street and Highway 6 in the Bucksbaum Center for the Arts on the Grinnell College campus. Admission is free and the gallery is open to the public.
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