During lunch today, my friend Theresa and I went to the Pick Museum of Anthropology at NIU and looked at the Quilts and Human Rights Exhibit.
The Pick Museum of Anthropology is a teaching museum for the university. They use special exhibitions to promote cultural awareness and solidarity in support of global social justice. This month the topic is Quilts and Human Rights.
I'm sorry that I couldn't get the descriptions of the quilts but I couldn't use my flash and some of the pictures didn't turn out. I hope you enjoy looking at these quilts and it makes people think. Some (if not most) of the quilts are of a sensitive nature and I mean no offense by putting them on my blog.
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| This is one of my favorites |
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| This Quilt is one of Four (I believe) that was made from blocks in remembrance of the 2008 shooting at NIU. |
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To remember 911
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Made by Diane Johns who used to work at the Graduate School
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At the time, this caused a big split in the local quilter's guild. I hope you can read about it in the picture below. You might have to enlarge it. Diane has given me lots of advice on quilting and took me to my first International Quilt Show in Rosemont. She is a marvelous quilter and it was a true shame that they didn't let her display it at the Quilt Guild show that year.
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| This was done by an expert appliquer and was done as a reverse applique quilt. |
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A close up of the reverse applique quilt
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I also liked how they mentioned how to make a quilt and showed how the sewing machines had changed over time. What they didn't mention was that these machines and even older ones are still coveted today and in use.
They did, however, tell the process (simplified of course) of the path a quilt goes through to be made.
I hope you enjoyed these pictures. There are more quilts than I took pictures of so I might have to go back.
If you are in the neighborhood you might want to stop at the museum (VERY close to visitor parking). The hours of the Pick Museum of Anthropology are:
Tuesday - Thursday 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Friday - Saturday 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Closed Sunday and Mondays.
1 comment:
Wow! There are some very interesting, and challenging pieces of art in that collection. I'm not sure if you can 'like' them, considering the thoughts and ideas that they are conveying, but you can certainly appreciate the time and effort that has gone into creating them. I imagine you'd walk out of the exhibition feeling quite 'shell-shocked' and challenged by them. Couldn't read the sign - words were too small.
I still have my maternal grandmother's old hand-cranked sewing machine - probably dates from the 30's? I always wonder how you could sew, if one hand is cranking, and the other hand is guiding the fabric, you'd still need another hand to guide the fabric as it goes out the back ...
Glad you got to go see the exhibition, sorry your friend didn't get to display her work.
sue:)
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