AP Quilt Outreach Since 2008 |
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New York, March
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Washington DC, July 22, 2014The second Mahilako Swastha (Women’s Health) quilt from Nepal was exhibited at the annual annual scientific meeting of the American Urogynecologic Society (AUGS) in Washington, DC. The squares were painted on to cloth in Nepal by women who underwent surgery for uterine prolapse, one of the Association’s concerns. Several hundred specialists attended the meeting and were able to see the ravages of prolapse from the perspective of those most affected. The quilt is shown here with AUGS staff. |
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AP donated eleven quilts to the exhibition: The Srebrenica Diaspora Quilt; the Rio Negro Textile; two Ahadi quilts from the DRC; two from Nepal; two Roma quilts (France and Kosovo); the Butonde straw quilt from Uganda; and the two Maasai quilts. Quilt for Change loaned several artistic quilts from its members around the theme of women and security. The exhibition was set up in the main UN Hall and launched at a reception by four distinguished speakers: Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA): Rosemary A. DiCarlo, Deputy US Ambassador to the UN; Margot Wallstrom, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict; and Marceline Kongolo, 24, the founder of AP’s Congolese partner, SOS Femmes en Danger (SOSFED). Our thanks to the United Nations Foundation for covering the cost of the reception. ![]() Isabel Osorio Chen (right), stands next to the square she wove for the Rio Negro textile. Heidi McKinnon (center) coordinated the quilt-making as a Peace Fellow. Two of the quilts on display were embroidered in the Congo by survivors of sexual violence at an SOSFED center and Marceline paid them tribute in her speech: “I work with extraordinary women,” she said. “They have been subjected to sexual attacks that are cruel and serious. But they have had the courage to testify to their pain by designing the shocking images that you see before you tonight.” Click here for a video of Marceline’s speech. As well as being the first major display of advocacy quilts, the UN exhibition also drew many AP friends who had helped to make the quilts. They included Isabel Osorio Chen, a survivor of the terrible massacres at Rio Negro, Guatemela, in the early 1980s and a member of the weaving group that made squares for the Rio Negro Textile. Isabel’s trip was arranged by the UN office in Guatemala City. Also present were several former Peace Fellows who had worked on quilt projects: Kate Bollinger (Nepal): Charlotte Bourdillon (Kenya); Heidi McKinnon (Guatemala); Beth Wofford (Czech Republic); and Scarlett Chidgey (Uganda). Several American quilters who had assembled the quilts on display were also able to attend: Cathy Springer from Indianapolis (Rehema Widows Quilt); Bobbi Fitsimmons from North Carolina (Gracanica Roma Quilt); Onalie Gagliano from New Jersey (Maasai Girls Quilt); Nancy Evans and Susan Schreurs from the Faithful Circle Quilting Guild in Columbia, Maryland (Ahadi Promise Quilts). For some, this was their first direct meeting with AP. It gave us an opportunity to thank them in person. Then there were the friends who made the exhibition possible by their support for AP: Mary Ellen Bittner, from the Zonta Women’s Club of Washington; Sarah Craven, head of the Washington office of the UNFPA; and Louis Lerouz, a devoted follower of Marceline’s work in the Congo who made the trip down from Canada. Tragically, Louis died soon afterwards from illness. Photographer Brian Gohacki covered the exhibition for AP, and the UN also commissioned a photographer, Whitney Kidder. Their excellent photos are available on a special Flickr page. AP also produced greeting cards which sold at the UN gift shop. ![]() Peace Fellow Scarlett Chidgey (center) helped women from a Ugandan slum to collect 10,000 straws and weave them into the Butonde (Nature) quilt – a big attraction at the UN exhibition. Over 150 guests attended the reception and by the time the exhibition closed in April it had been viewed by 80,000 visitors. They included the curator of the human rights gallery at Kean University, Neil Tetkowski, who issued an invitation to hold the exhibition at the university in 2013. Many visitors left simple but moving comments in the visitor’s book. “Your quilts are amazing. Women really are the fabric,” wrote Brooke. Another visitor commented: “Your strength and message touched my soul.” The book covered several pages of comments, in many different languages, and provided an exclamation mark on the event. Our special thanks to Alexandra Sicotte-Levesque and Christian Delsol from UNFPA (pictured below); to Jan Arnesen the UN curator and her talented team; to Whitney Kidder and Brian Gohacki, photographers; and to the AP team (Iain, Karin, Erica, Laura, Jennica, Beth, and Charlotte) which are pictured at the top of this page. All worked hard to make the exhibition the success it was.
Marceline Kongolo, 26, the founder and director of SOS Femmes en Danger (SOSFED), attended the exhibition at the invitation of AP and gave the keynote address in front of an audience that included Margot Wallstrom, the UN Special Representative on Armed Sexual Violence, Dr Babatunde Osotimehin, Director of UNFPA, and the deputy US Ambassador to the UN. It was Marceline’s first visit to the US.
As a Peace Fellow in Kenya, Charlotte Bourdillon (left) helped to produce the squares for the Maasai Girls Quilt, shown here. Onalie Gagliano (center) assembled the quilt at her home in New Jersey. Alexandra Sicotte-Levesque and Christian Delsol from UNFPA, organized the exhibit. Sarah Craven, from the UNFPA Washington office, with Dick Wilbur and Alison Wilbur, the founder of Quilt for Change and a co-sponsor of the UN exhibition. Marceline Kongolo, left, relaxes at the exhibition. |
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In early June, AP’s collection of advocacy quilts moved to the Noyes Museum in southern New Jersey. The Museum is a well-known cultural center in a spectacular setting next to the New Jersey shore. Its speciality is innovative, hand-crafted works of art. Indeed, one of the four galleries at Noyes is devoted to artefacts by “ordinary” people. Many are fascinating and inventive.
Dorrie Papademetriou, the director of exhibitions, visited the display of advocacy quilts at Kean University and decided that the quilts would fit well into the Noyes philosophy. This was echoed by Sara Gendlek, the deputy director at Noyes, at the opening night of the exhibition on June 6. “People are drawn by the colorful and beautiful imagery. They will walk by and say ‘Oh – Pretty!’ Then they go ‘Wow – there’s a deeper message here and we want to learn more.’”
Seventeen AP partner organizations, from 12 countries, contributed quilts to the Noyes exhibition. The following quilts were displayed: The Rio Negro Memorial Textile; the River Gypsy Quilt (Bangladesh); the Vietnam Disability Quilt; the Child Protection Quilt (Uganda); The Morocan Amazigh Quilt; The Maasai Girls Quilt (Kenya); the Rehema Widows’ Quilt (Kenya); the Women’s Microcredit Quilt (Bangladesh); the Belize Orchid Quilt; the Belize Forest Quilt; the Fifth Ahadi (Promise) Quilt (DRC); the Butonde Quilt (Uganda); the Srebrenica Diaspora Memorial Quilt; the Sixth Love Blanket (Nepal); the Romano Trajo (Roma Life) Quilt (Lithuania); the Second Mahilako Swastha (Women’s Health) Quilt (Nepal); the Chintan Wastepickers’ Quilt (India).
All but one of these quilts were exhibited before Noyes. The new addition was the River Gypsy Quilt from Bangladesh. The squares for this quilt were embroidered in Bangladesh by women artists in the town of Sunargaon, and they describe the life of River Gypsies – one of the most marginalized and least-known communities in Bangladesh. The project was organized in Bangladesh by the Subornogram Foundation, a small advocacy group and AP partner that represents the River Gypsies.
“They should stop what they’re doing!” Tianna Hood, 12, was impressed by the Child Protection Quilt, which speaks out against child sacrifice in Uganda.
The squares were brought to the US by Peace Fellow Chris Pinderhughes, and assembled into a finished quilt by the Sisters’ Choice in Arlington Virginia. The quilters showed great flair in the way that they designed the quilt and used different colored fabric to represent rivers, sand and vegetation. The River Gypsy Quilt will be profiled on a new page on this website, that will feature photos of the artists in Bangladesh and photos and interviews with the American quilters.
The Noyes exhibition was opened on June 6 with a reception that featured a local band and drew scores of interested visitors. Tianna Hood, 12, reviewed the quilts carefully, and was particularly impressed by the Child Protection Quilt, which makes a strong protest against the practice of child sacrifice in Uganda. “They should stop what they’re doing,” she said. “But I’m really happy that they’re showing it (the quilt) here.”
Karin Orr and Iain Guest were on hand from AP to tell the story behind the quilts, on behalf of the partner organizations and artists. The exhibition then ran until September 11. Iain closed the exhibition by giving a talk to students and faculty at Stockton College, which is associated with the Noyes Museum. Iain entitled his talk Advocacy Quilting as the Art of Remembrance, and made a direct link between the anniversary of 9/11 and the Noyes exhibition. Several AP partners – in Guatemala and Bosnia – have used quilting to remember loved ones who disappeared.
![]() The hands for Henna Pride were painted by artists from the transgender and gay community in western India. The quilt was shown publicly for the first time at the Lowell exhibition. In the spring of 2015, AP exhibited ten quilts at the New England Quilt Museum, in Lowell. Lowell is a former textile town that now serves as a center for refugee resettlement in the northeast. While the mills themselves have long closed and been transformed into elegant office buildings, Lowell retains a strong link to its past as a textile center through the quilt museum, which is well known in the US and internationally. AP was particularly pleased to show quilts at the museum given that several AP quilts have been assembled by Barbara Barber and Allison Wilbur from New England. Allison’s own organization, Quilt for Change, joined AP as a co-sponsor of the exhibition. This was the second time the two groups had joined forces to show quilts, and the Lowell exhibition again underscored their different but complementary approaches. AP helps marginalized groups in the Global South to tell their story through embroidery of weaving and asks American quilters to assemble the quilts. Quilt for Change asks American quilters to make and donate quilts on a development issue. Several of Alison’s quilts were on the theme of solar energy. This was the first public showing of Henna Pride, from India. This spectacular quilt is made up of hands painted with henna that are overlaid on a dark blue background that grows lighter towards the edges. The hands are reaching up, as if seeking to escape from the dark. The hands were painted in the state of Gujarat, India, by gay and transgender artists under the auspices of the Vikalp Women’s Group. Vikalp, an AP partner, advocates for the rights of tribal women and members of the LGBTI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex) community. Peace Fellow Gisele Bolton helped the artists and brought the squares back to the US, where they were assembled by John Anderson and Nancy Evans. ![]() Allison Wilbur, from Quilt for Change, and Iain Guest from AP at the opening of the Lowell exhibition. Experts from the museum were full of praise for Henna Pride. Pamela Weeks, curator at the Museum observed: “This is a wonderful example of an art that is typical of the region from whence it comes and yet is transformed by an American quilter. It starts with a dark center representing the darkness of being alone, of persecution, and then it gets brighter. What I have learned in my years as a curator is that every quilt has a story to tell – whether it’s a mid-19th century New England family through a signature quilt or transgender people from India. Quilts are objects of comfort that can be used to tell stories. These are beautiful quilts that tell difficult stories.” Nora Burchfield, Executive Director of the Museum, agreed. “It’s a difficult story to tell in a way that’s accessible. People respond to quilts. They pull you in and they are non-threatening, but at the same time you are telling a story that is very sad. It’s an impressive exhibition.” Ten AP partners from 8 countries provided the following quilts for the Lowell exhibition: Henna Pride (India); the River Gypsy Quilt (Bangladesh); the Rehema Widows’ Quilt (Kenya); the Women’s Microcredit Quilt (Bangladesh); the Belize Forest Quilt; the Fifth Ahadi (Promise) Quilt (DRC); the Romano Trajo (Roma Life) Quilt (Lithuania); the Second Mahilako Swastha (Women’s Health) Quilt (Nepal); the Chintan Wastepickers’ Quilt (India); and the Gracanica Roma Quilt (Kosovo). |
Salve Regina University used 19 advocacy quilts to make a powerful plea for compassion and mercy at an elegant exhibition in March. The exhibition, “A Global Call for Mercy – Vulnerable Communities Speak Out Through Quilts,” was held at Ochre Court, a spectacular university building that overlooks the ocean, between March 8 and March 16. The show attracted scores of students, staff, Newport residents and quilters from the region. The exhibition was organized by students in the Nuala Pell Leadership Program at Salve Regina and arranged around the themes of the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, a year-long campaign for social justice launched by Pope Francis. The themes were nonviolence; women; earth and the environment; immigration; racism; and children. Salve Regina was founded by the Catholic Sisters of Mercy and is deeply committed to the Jubilee mission. ![]() Alexis Jankowski, left, a student docent and team leader, with Bobbi Fitzsimmons, who assembled two quilts in the exhibition from Kosovo and Uganda. This was the first exhibition of advocacy quilts organized by students, and in keeping with the academic purpose each of the Salve Regina students acted as a docent for one of the themes. The students visited AP in Washington and took inspiration from their message. “Many of the images are graphic, but these are personal statements and a plea to be heard,” said Kay Scanlan, a sophomore at Salve Regina and student leader who spoke at the reception. Alexis Jankowski, another team leader, served as the docent for the women’s quilts and said she had learned a lot from the quilts and from explaining their message: “Newport does have that reputation about being about money, but there really are a lot of genuine, caring and interested people (here). It taught me a lot about the Newport community and the communities we were representing.” Alexis and the other docents are profiled on the next tab to this page and feature in this video produced by Salve Regina on the event. More than 150 individuals from the Global South, almost all of them women and children, contributed embroidered squares for the 19 quilts on display. This was the first public showing for the Mali Camel Quilt, which was embroidered by women from northern Mali while they were recovering from war rape at a center in Bamako run by Sini Sanuman, an AP partner. The squares were assembled by Merry May, from the South Shore Stitchers Guild in Marmora, New Jersey. Most of the quilts on display were put together in the US by American quilters and three attended the March 10 reception. Bobbi Fitzsimmons, who worked on the Gracanica quilt from Kosovo and the Child Protection Quilt – which was made by families that lost children to child sacrifice – drove from North Carolina for the event. Two quilters from Rhode Island also attended. Allison Wilbur, a long-time partner of AP and founder of Quilt for Change, led the quilting of the Chintan Wastepickers’ Quilt. Ruth Sears, president of Quilters by the Sea, a guild in Portsmouth RI, also worked on the Chintan quilt and praised the exhibition. “I’m very impressed. It’s amazing to see all the work and the fantastic things that have been depicted here. But it’s (also) kind of sad to hear the stories.” Following the reception, Kathryn Clancy, another of the Salve Regina docents, exhibited several quilts on the theme of children at the Thompson Middle School in Newport town, accompanied by Iain Guest from AP. The students, aged from 11 to 12, reflected the diversity of America and came from countries as diverse as Bulgaria, India, Yemen and Ethiopia. The students seemed particularly impressed by the Maasai Girls’ Quilt, which expresses the dreams of Maasai schoolgirls, and the Chintan Wastepickers’ quilt, which was painted onto scraps of recycled clothing by children who were rescued from garbage in Delhi. Following the presentation, Lisa Olaynack, their teacher, launched a competition for the best product made from recycling. Salve Regina posted this video on the exhibition after the event. AP also showed three videos of quilts being made at the reception – the Ahadi quilts from the DRC; the River Gypsy quilt from Bangladesh; and the Nunca Mas quilts from Peru. All are available on the AP Youtube site. |