Earlier this week, in what already seems like a bucolic time when I had time to think about multidisciplinary events, I talked to my artist colleague/friend about possibilities. I would love to do something with quilts; she thinks students wouldn't be interested. But if we could broaden it to textiles, then we could pull in Interior Design students and Fashion students. And then there's the idea of quilting more as an art form, less as something to throw on the bed.
In an even older time, when I spent less time at work and more time working on fabric arts, I made creations which technically are quilted, as I used quilting stitches to keep all the layers in place:
We talked about making a display in the library of the wide variety of quilts that one could make. We talked about all the faculty who do some form of fabric art, whether it be quilting, creating clothes, embellishment, recovering chairs.
A Festival of Fabrics also has a great tie in for a service project. I could bring in an assembled quilt and let the students knot it; it would teach them about quilting while also creating something for the less fortunate. We've done this at church for the last several years, as we've made quilts for Lutheran World Relief:
My artist colleague/friend and I also talked about future festivals. I'd love to do more with Halloween: tie in customs from Latin countries about The Day of the Dead, All Saints, All Souls.
One of the things we learned from our Festival of Frida (Kahlo) is that it's good to tie in with projects that traditionally occur. So for Frida, we hooked into the Cinco de Mayo events that were already planned. Halloween can be similar.
And then there's Christmas--ah, Christmas!
I also like this idea, from Hannah Stephenson's blog post: a group "distributed 6 by 8 inch panels to around 60 Columbus artists. We were asked to create a piece of art on this panel that represented our own work (whatever the genre), and those panels will be hung throughout the city on street signs."
Since I'm at a school with a wide variety of artists, we could end up with an interesting collection.
I'm also remembering Sandy Longhorn's success with Chalk the Walk projects. She posts pictures every year, but this blog post explains the process a bit.
We won't be able to that project down here for another half year or so. It's full-blown summer here--much too hot for chalking the walk.
And now, back to my more somber thoughts of the coming quarter and how to staff classes that might suddenly be vacant of faculty. When I need a stress reliever, let me remember the soothing nature of sewing long seams.
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