TUSCUMBIA – The Tennessee Valley Museum of Art is featuring an exhibition of historic and contemporary quilts in Evolving Patterns: Legacies of Quilting on display through November 4, 2023.
This grouping is a thoughtful conversation between historic quilting and contemporary uses of quilting.
Quilts from 1830 through the present shift their patterns to present new aesthetic tastes and purposes. Featuring regional juried contemporary quilts, the quilt-inspired, community-sourced patterns of Alabama Chanin, and quilts from the Sew Their Names Project.
Alabama Chanin is celebrating the upcoming twenty-five year release of “Stitch” a documentary film about the high fashion quilt-inspired designs. The TVMA is featuring 181 Alabama Chanin swatches. A public reception and homecoming for Alabama Chanin artisans and employees will be held November 2 from 6PM to 8PM at the Tennessee Valley Museum of Art. More about Alabama Chanin at https://alabamachanin.com/.
The Say Their Names Project is a quilting project in the rural Black Belt of Alabama that brings communities together in the spirit of truth and reconciliation to commemorate the erased and forgotten lives of enslaved persons by stitching their names into memorial quilts and telling the history of the Southern antebellum church’s support for slavery. Say Their Names will present their project and more quilts at a free program at the Helen Keller Public Library October 19 at Noon. For more information on Sew Their Names visit https://www.hopewellproject.net/sew-their-names.
“I hope when they leave, away from this place, they will go sit, think, remember and do better.” ~Yvonne Wells, Quilt Artist
Entry to the museum located at 511 N. Water Street, Tuscumbia, AL is $5 Tuesday-Friday 9-5PM and
Saturday 10-5PM. For more information about the Tennessee Valley Art Association, which runs the Ritz Theatre and the Tennessee Valley Museum of Art, call 256-383-0533 or visit tennesseevalleyarts.org.
