Quilt Information for Final Education Paper

Preliminary exhibition brief “From Geometric to Fancy: Coverlets from the Yager Museum of Art & Culture,” (Title tentative)
April 2010

Summary:
The Yager Museum of Art & Culture plans to develop an exhibition and related programs for a Fall 2010 opening. The exhibition is tentatively entitled "From Geometric to Fancy: Coverlets from the Yager Museum of Art & Culture." The exhibition will feature 16 to 18 handmade coverlets, which are significant regional works of art in their own right. The project also presents very interesting opportunities for multidisciplinary learning. The exhibition will include sections and interactives exploring ideas such as chemistry, color, and dying of fibers; weaving technology and improvements in the early 19th century; the role of home weavers and professionals; gender and weaving; design issues including both traditional geometric patterns and fancy (figural and floral) designs; and how these coverlets were used in the home and valued over subsequent generations. The coverlets all date from the 1820s through the 1870s, and were made in the New England/New York/New Jersey/Pennsylvania region. The exhibition will provide visitors with a variety of tools for understanding and examining the coverlets, enhancing their visual literacy skills. A variety of regional scholars will be invited to participate in the development of the exhibition, along with an arts educator who is also a fiber arts specialist.

Project goals:

• The project will introduce students to fiber arts, considering an important moment in the history of this art form.
• The exhibition will provide an opportunity to show how science, technology, and art work together, demonstrating how tradition and innovation worked together in the creation of these visually appealing objects.
• Students will be challenged to develop a wider range of visual literacy skills, which will not only help them to explore the coverlets in the exhibition, but will develop a core of skills that are useful in viewing other artwork and in creating or navigating visual information in the world at large.
• The project will include three area scholars and educational specialists, who will work with staff and students in the development of the project and in its presentation in the museum. These scholars and educators will be invited to present programs to the campus community during the fall semester to increase engagement and interest in the exhibition.

This project will deepen the museum's research and collections files and provide an opportunity to see and understand this group of artifacts, which have not been seen for a significant amount of time.

Checklist of artifacts:
List of 22 coverlets in Yager Museum collection available (most with images of portions of the coverlets)

Information to come:
Exhibition practica students plan to conduct a short front-end evaluation to ascertain what HC students know about coverlets, the effets of gender perception on the artifacts, and what aspects of the interdisciplinary interpretation might interest them. Results to come.