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ARKANSAS FOLK ARTIST’S WORK FEATURED IN NEW EXHIBIT AT THE OLD STATE HOUSE MUSEUM
January 26, 2007
LITTLE ROCK--The Old State House Museum will open an impressive new exhibit titled Piece of My Soul: Quilts by Black Arkansans on February 2, 2007. The exhibit will remain on view at the museum through February 2008. Piece of My Soul spotlights the Old State House Museum’s expanded collection of over 100 quilts made by African Americans from the state against the backdrop of folk paintings by a Camden-based artist.
To illustrate the journey from conception of a quilt to the gathering of materials, from the actual quilting process to the entire life cycle of a quilt, the quilts, all from the museum’s permanent collection, will be displayed in typical, home-like settings. A rustic cabin, a cozy living room, and other personal spaces where quilts were created and/or used will give viewers a familiar, first-hand look at the many different forms and utilitarian uses for these colorful works of art.
Complementing the daily life-inspired works at the heart of the new Piece of My Soul exhibit are paintings by self-taught Arkansas artist LeeNora Parlor. Growing up near Camden, relocating to the North and then returning to the area in recent years, Parlor believed that “the decision to return to the South and live in the ‘country’ again would enhance my (artistic) ability…and it has.”
Parlor’s favorite subjects include paintings of ancestors and other family members, in settings easily recognized by anyone familiar with the rural South. Cotton fields, country churches, and the natural environment all figure prominently in her work. Represented by several Arkansas and Southern art galleries, LeeNora Parlor’s paintings emotionally depict people and surroundings common to many African-American quilters.
Not only were Parlor’s paintings chosen to complement the Piece of My Soul exhibit because they hail from the same geographical region as many of the quilts, but also because her themes and subjects concerning family and memory are most appropriate when seen in context of the Old State House Museum’s quilt collection.
The Old State House Museum’s African-American quilt collection is unique for
the quantity and variety of its “family quilts.” Those made by mothers and daughters, sisters, twins, cousins, and three generations from one family are a part of this remarkable assemblage of quilts. These family quilts, dated from roughly 1880 to the present, are representative of almost the entire 20th century of black quilt-making in rural southern Arkansas. The bedcovers are a tribute to their makers’ spirit and creativity, as well as their desire to nurture and to care for their families.
Besides their remarkable beauty, however, these quilts also serve as important historical records. Quilt studies have helped reveal the genealogy, customs and folklore of several rural black Arkansas communities. This type of information, crucial to historians in documenting the history of the state, “often does not exist anywhere else,” explains Old State House Museum Curator Jo Ellen Maack. Conservation of these textiles preserves quilters’ personal histories, their artistic expression, and indeed, a piece of their soul.
About the Old State House Museum
The Old State House Museum is a museum of the Department of Arkansas Heritage and shares the goal of all seven Department of Arkansas Heritage agencies, that of preserving and enhancing the heritage of the state of Arkansas. The agencies are Arkansas Arts Council, Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, Delta Cultural Center in Helena, Historic Arkansas Museum, Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, and the Old State House Museum.
Museum hours are: Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free. For group tour reservations, please call (501) 324-9685.
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