My American Series - The Friendship/BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport Quilt

OK, I am finally getting back to the My American Series postings. After being chided by Dr. Gaither at her NAEA workshop about my having taken several "breaks," I am back to write up the last quilt that hasn't either received one of the in depth MAS postings or been the subject of several postings.

The Friendship/Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport Quilt is a somewhat tricky quilt to write about. This quilt took Dr. Gaither's concept of community involvement from community provided stories and images to a new level with community members assigned different squares on the quilt to take home and sew. Dr. Gaither conceptualized the quilt and pieced it together, but the actual sewing of this quilt was done by many hands with the final product pulled together by Dr. Gaither, Yvonne Henry, Peggie Bessicks, and Dr. Gaither's sister and mother.

The Airport Quilt came about as an extension of Trails, Tracks, Tarmac. While TTT was on display at the Banneker-Douglass Museum, NACPS started working on several satellite exhibitions including a few small displays of objects and small quilts for display at the BWI Airport. BWI currently sits on land once occupied by African American communities, including several featured in TTT. (Note: the final "T" in TTT stands for Tarmac - as in airport tarmac.) During the run of TTT, the Northern Arundel Cultural Preservation Society began working with airport officials to curate an art exhibition featuring works by several local artists. Dr. Gaither served as the curator for this exhibition and contributed a few pieces to the show. She decided to create a quilt especially for this exhibition that features the people and places associated with the history of BWI and the land it sits on.

The airport site is significant in Northern Anne Arundel County, Maryland history. Formerly an area of farming, tobacco and cereal crops, it has been a place where African Americans have lived, farmed and owned businesses and land. Many family names, including Blackwell, Brooks, Domney, Edwards, Gaither, Green, Hines, Jakson, Marshall, Meacham, Murry, Oden, and Woods, are a part of this site’s history. This quilt illustrates the community’s connection to the land and the airport.

As I mentioned before, this quilt was sewn together by several community members and then pieced together by Dr. Gaither and a few friends and family members at the very end. This method of quilting has created an interesting dynamic between Dr. Gaither and this quilt which did not become apparent until quite recently. As I have worked on pulling together information on her work for various projects, I have discovered an extreme lack of information on this particular quilt in comparison to all of the other My American Series quilts. It is also the quilt that Dr. Gaither spends the least amount of time discussing when she talks about this series. I would be interested to see how much information and documentation I could uncover on this quilt if I could bring all of the quilters together.

While this is a community-sewn quilt, it is not necessarily a communal quilt as the community worked individually rather than all together to put this quilt together. When working on the next quilt in the series (J2WH) Dr. Gaither incorporated elements of the community quilting from both the Airport Quilt and the TTT Quilt. She used community members to help her sew the quilt together just as she did with the Airport Quilt, however this time the quilt stayed in one place and the community came to it. Just like TTT, she allowed the community to bring stories to the quilt, only on J2WH the community added the stories, emotions, and names to the quilt themselves rather than having her do it for them.

The Airport Quilt was the first quilt Dr. Gaither created after I met her and I remember the debut of the work at the BWI exhibition. The exhibition opened with great fanfare including an opening ceremony with over 100 people in attendance from the community, BWI, airport patrons wandering through, a community choir, and the exhibiting artists just to name some of the people there. I didn't really know Dr. Gaither very well at that point, but I do remember sitting behind her during the ceremony. Just prior to the start of the ceremony, she told a few of the people seated around her about the creation of the quilt and how, just like every other one of her quilts, it was a race to the finish, but with all of the extra hands working on it she had been able to get some rest at the end. A minor miracle considering she always finds something to continue "tweaking" on her quilts.

When I look at the Airport Quilt, I think it is the quilt that visually makes the connection between the Brown's quilt and the other quilts in the series. It has a greater proportion of the muted colors that make up the Brown's quilt than the others in the series surrounded by the traditional My American Series border. Perhaps that is a result of the disconnect between Dr. Gaither and this quilt. While the quilt was pieced together by her, she did not sew each square. I have observed that Dr. Gaither really edits and changes her quilts as she works through each individual piece. Since she did not spend as much time on this quilt as the others, she did not necessarily have the opportunity to edit and change as she normally would. This is neither good nor bad, just different. When all six quilts go on display at School 33 in Baltimore, MD this summer, I encourage you to come visit and put my theory to the test and see if you agree. In the meantime, you will have to make do with the pictures here.

Quilting for Social Justice Exhibition Extended

Just wanted to share a quick note to say the exhibition A Pathway to Awareness has been extended until 3 May 2010. If you didn't get a chance to see this fantastic exhibition put together by Dr. Gaither and her students at the Maryland Institute College of Art, you have a few extra days. The exhibition is up until next Monday, so hurry up and go see it before it comes down!

Exhibit Details:

13 April - 3 May 2010
Maryland Institute College of Art
Meyerhoff Gallery in the Fox Building
1303 W. Mount Royal Ave.
Baltimore, MD 21217
For information contact 410.225.2297

Photo by Alex Arocho.

Click here to view a previous posting on this exhibition.

Upcoming Lecture

Just wanted to share in case you missed it at the end of my last lengthy post, Dr. Gaither will be speaking at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum on Saturday, May 1, 2010 at 2:00 p.m. The lecture will focus on her work and you can have the opportunity to see J2WH with an artist-led tour at the museum.

Please join us for the event. The talk is free, however you do have to pay to get into the museum ($8.00).

A note on getting to the museum/parking - the Annual Kinetic Sculpture Race will take place in Baltimore the same day. If the route is similar to last year's, please make sure you allow extra time to get to the museum.

Teaching Teachers

Over the past week, the National Art Education Association has held their annual conference in Baltimore, MD, bringing in educators from all areas of the country to discuss work going on in the field from several perspectives. Attendees have spent a week looking at art and art education through the lens of social justice and the implications social justice has on education, human interaction, and how each individual and/or community views their world and what that means. For my part, I have attended sessions talking about how museums can help to shape the way people view their own communities and share their worldview with others as well as the role of museums in the future when it comes to interpreting people and communities outside of their own.

NAEA conferences are unlike any conference I have previously attended as there is a great emphasis on learning while doing. Many of the lecture sessions are interactive and there are opportunities around every corner to create. The exhibit hall is literally jammed with people at every vendor booth making art and talking about it. One of the other great things the convention offers is the chance to interact with artists and other teachers around the country in hands-on workshops.

25 conference attendees had the treat of participating in a sold-out workshop with Dr. Gaither at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum on Friday. The workshop began in front of J2WH (Journey to the White House or the Obama Quilt), with Dr. Gaither talking about the piece and the symbolism included. She went through several of the images on the quilt explaining their significance as well as talking about the traditional quilting symbols involved and the way she puts her own "spin" on them. I have heard her talk about her work many times and to many audiences over the past three years, but I knew this audience was going to be different when they broke out into applause for her and her work after 10 minutes.

After viewing J2WH, the teachers were then taken into a classroom where they had the opportunity to see several of Dr. Gaither's works involving social justice issues. She has quite a few of them - more than I can go into, especially considering I hadn't even seen two of them until that morning. I will see what I can do about getting some information about these quilts on here in the future. The teachers then settled in for some brainstorming considering the definition of social justice and then coming up with ideas for quilt squares based on a particular issue.

After the initial drawings were completed, they were placed on the floor together to have people consider their work as well as the others for ideas and ways they could enhance their squares. After a brief discussion, everyone went to work on their individual squares. The final product resulted in a patchwork of ideas and colors, each completely different and reflecting an individual's own unique perspective but all tied together through the common thread of quilting and this workshop, thereby creating a new temporary community.

The reactions of the participants to Dr. Gaither's work and creating their own pieces was extraordinary and very interesting to see. Alissandra Seelaus, one of Dr. Gaither's students helping with the workshop, noted that it only took 18 minutes before we overheard someone say "I love her." I think that is a new record. Participants came away from the workshop talking about how they were going to incorporate what they had learned into their classrooms with promises of keeping Dr. Gaither informed on their progress. It will be fascinating to see how large Dr. Gaither's quilting community grows as a result of this workshop.

Throughout the conference, Dr. Gaither received multiple requests for presentations, lectures, and articles from people and organizations around the country. If everything works out, she will definitely be living up to the idea that you are busier in retirement than you are in your working life. Given how much she runs (and has me running with her) now, my head is spinning at the prospect. Spinning in a good and excited way, though. The Energizer Bunny has some worthy competition. I will keep a running list of her upcoming speaking engagements and appearances here on the blog as soon as I have them.

I think that is a long enough posting for today. We took several pictures at the workshop this week, but unfortunately for me they are all on Dr. Gaither's camera. I will kidnap the camera at some point soon and post a few of the images to show off everyone's handiwork. ***UPDATE! As you can see, I got the pictures. Enjoy!

Oh, one other note on speaking engagements. Dr. Gaither will be giving a lecture on her work and J2WH at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum in Baltimore on 1 May 2010 at 2:00 p.m. The lecture is free, but you do have to purchase a ticket to get into the museum which is $8.00 per person.

A Pathway to Awareness: Quilting for Social Justice

Last night saw the opening of the exhibition A Pathway to Awareness: Quilting for Social Justice at the Maryland Institute College of Art. For loyal readers of this blog, you will remember a posting from Sara Allred in January about the very beginning of this exhibition process. This exhibition is the culmination of two and a half months of work by Dr. Gaither and her students to develop a quilt exhibition focusing on social justice issues. The exhibition opening was a phenomenal success with 200 people coming out from MICA, Baltimore-based community organizations, and members of the National Art Education Association in town for their 2010 annual conference.

As Dr. Gaither has continuously stated over the past week, the exhibition was nothing more than an idea up until 22 January 2010. Dr. Gaither was originally approached by MICA's Dean of Art Education, Dr. Karen Carroll, last December about teaching a course during the spring 2010 semester on quilting and using art to talk about social justice with a full exhibition and programming to coincide with the NAEA conference. The idea was to involve students from all parts of the college, asking them to create artworks discussing social justice issues and work with community groups to create their own quilts to be included.

The exhibit process began in January with a workshop where the 13 participants were taught about quilting and given the tools to teach others how to quilt. The participants then went out and worked with school classes, after-school programs, community organizations such as House of Ruth, a women's shelter in Baltimore, and many others to create quilts depicting social justice issues. The resulting quilts included quilt squares created by middle school students telling a personal story about their community. The entire quilt is held together by safety pins. Another piece, put together by women at House of Ruth (a Baltimore women's shelter), is in the shape of a dress and is placed on a dressform. The dress has the phrase "Sex as a Weapon" on the front with the skirt composed of images of women quilted by women from the shelter. The piece is extremely powerful and amazing to see.

The exhibition also contains pieces from the students in Dr. Gaither's class who not only put the entire exhibition together but contributed their own work. Additionally, pre-service art education students from Towson University participated in quilting sessions with Dr. Gaither resulting in a quilt of their squares combined. The exhibition includes a photography component with photographs of a local community by fifth grade students - 12 from the inner city and 12 from suburban Baltimore. At the exhibition opening last night, many of these students were present as well as a drumline from Waverly Community Center composed of young musicians ranging in grade level from 2nd through 9th giving their first public performance outside of their area.

This course is serving as Dr. Gaither's "swan song." After 44 years of teaching in the public school systems in Baltimore City and Howard County and at MICA, she has announced she is retiring. As she phrases it, she is not retiring from teaching so much as retiring to working as an artist full time. This course is the perfect fit for her style of artmaking as it incorporates teaching people to quilt in her style, involves community members, and essentially is teaching her students to do what she does. The result is a phenomenal exhibition.

The exhibition is a great, thought-provoking experience and I strongly encourage people to go visit. Thanks to Dr. Gaither's student Alex Arocho for the picture of Dr. Gaither at the exhibit opening last night. The exhibition will only be on display for a week, so go soon!

Exhibit Details:
13-19 April 2010
Maryland Institute College of Art
Meyerhoff Gallery in the Fox Building
1303 W. Mount Royal Ave.
Baltimore, MD  21217
For information contact 410.225.2297