On Saturday, October 15, from 1-3:30 p.m. journalist Meg Cox will lead a panel of experts and a tour of the Newark Museum‘s new exhibition on patchwork quilts. Entitled “Explore the Art of Quilts”, the program will be part of a film and discussion series complementing the show, Patchwork from Folk Art to Fine Art. There will also be a documentary entitled Stitched, which looks at three competitive quilters, Caryl Bryer Fallert, Hollis Chatelain and Randall Cook, as they compete at the International Quilt Festival in Houston.
Cox, a 17-year veteran writer with the Wall Street Journal, author and master quilter, will serve as moderator of the roundtable discussion called “Quilts: Folk Art or Fine Art”. As president of the national nonprofit Alliance for American Quilts, Cox presides over the oral history project, Quilters S.O.S. –Save Our Stories, archived at the Library of Congress. The expert panelists who will share their quilt-life stories are Victoria Findlay Wolfe, artist, quilter and president of Bumble Beans Inc., Luke Haynes, artist and Mark Lipinski, internationally recognized quilt teacher, quilt fabric designer, former executive editor of Quilter’s Home Magazine and Emmy nominated talk show pioneer.
The second program in the three-part series will be held on Saturday, November 19, from 1 to 3:30 p.m. Visitors will preview one of the segments in the new PBS documentary, Why Quilts Matter: History, Art and Politics. The 12-part documentary is a fascinating exploration that takes the viewer on a journey into the world of quilts and their central importance in American culture.
The roundtable discussion includes moderator Shelley Zegart, a quilt expert and collector, co-founder of the Alliance for American Quilts, one of the founders of the Quilt Index and founding director of the Kentucky Quilt Project. She is also the executive producer of the PBS nine-part documentary film Why Quilts Matter: History, Art and Politics. Screenwriter, author and journalist Ann Berman; artist, teacher and designer Susan Ball Faeder, and mixed media artist Vadis Turner, who works with handcraft materials to challenge traditional gender roles, will share their views as members of the panel.
“An Enduring Tradition: African American Quiltmaking” will be the final program in the three-part series to be held on December 3 from 1 to 3:30 p.m. and is co-presented by the Nubian Heritage Quilters of New Jersey. Attendees are invited to watch the film The Quiltmakers of Gees Bend, produced by the Alabama Public Television Company. The film documents a group of internationally acclaimed black quilt makers from Gee’s Bend, Alabama, and explores their extraordinary lives, inspirations and history.
Registration is required for each segment and may be obtained by calling 973-596-6613 or by registering on-line. The series is $25 for members and $30 for non-members. Cost for individual programs is $10 for members and $15 for non-members.
