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PIECING HISTORY TOGETHER: 20TH CENTURY LIFE UNCOVERED BY NEW QUILT EXHIBIT IN ARKANSAS
January 24, 2007
LITTLE ROCK--The Old State House Museum will open an impressive new exhibit titled Piece of My Soul: Quilts by Black Arkansans with a special opening reception on February 8, 2007, from 6 to 8 p.m. 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. 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.
Why African-American quilts? In general, most quilts are based on many of the same traditional patterns or patterns circulated in newspapers or other printed resources. Outside of the mainstream, however, black quilters often showed an openness to improvise with color and pattern, consciously choosing to deviate from pre-designed templates. Two good examples of this willingness to experiment are found in quilts from the exhibit. One, in a traditional medallion pattern, continues with familiar shapes and forms but varies in its use of color — in this case, vibrant greens, oranges, purples, and black. In the case of another quilt from the collection, the traditional Dutch tile pattern is almost unrecognizable because of a riot of both color and patterned fabrics. This particular quilt looks much more akin to textiles from West Africa than to a conventional American quilt. Because of this artistic improvisation, it is no wonder some of these quilts call jazz, another uniquely American art form, to mind.
The Old State House Museum’s African-American quilt collection is also 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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