Renowned Alabama Quiltmakers Tour Nova Scotia
Jul 4th, 2007 by Brian Hurlburt
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
All welcome,
Renowned Alabama Quiltmakers Tour Nova Scotia
The celebrated Gee’s Bend quiltmakers of Alabama are coming back to Nova Scotia for the Gees Bend Quiltmakers Nova Scotia Tour running from July
6 till July 15, 2007. The tour runs in conjunction with the exhibition Mary Lee Bendolph: Gees Bend Quilts and Beyond, currently on display at the Art
Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax until September 9, 2007.
The tour begins on July 6 in Halifax and North Preston; it then travels through the province with stops in Stellarton on July 7, Yarmouth on July 10, Weymouth July 11, Shelburne on July 12 and finishes up in Halifax with a special event on July 14 and 15, 2007.
The tour includes screenings of the Emmy award-winning documentary The Quiltmakers of Gee’s Bend (2004 Emmy), which details the uncovering by art collector Bill Arnett and subsequent international acclaim of a group of elder quiltmakers from Gees Bend. There will be presentations by AGNS Associate and Gee’s Bend Tour Coordinator David Woods African Nova Scotian Quiltmaking traditions, a quilt-making demonstration and talk by Gee’s Bend
quiltmakers Mary Lee Bendolph, Louisiana Pettway-Bendolph, and art curator Matt Arnett of Tinwood Alliance, Atlanta. They will discuss the meaning of Gee’s Bend Quilts, their cultural and social links with the African
American story and their opinion on contemporary art in America. Visits to Weymouth and Shelburne will include a Luncheon.
Additionally there will be a one day exhibition, Our Ancestors’ Garden, a new, traveling exhibition of African Nova Scotian Quilts curated by David Woods. Included are quilts by Myla Borden, Marilyn Brannon, Frances
Dorrington, Marlene Dorrington, Laurel Francis Debra Jordan, Kathy Lusk and Sharon Robart-Johnson. Two quilts from the Gee’s Bend quiltmakers will be featured in this exhibition.
Gee’s Bend is a small, isolated, rural town of about 500 residents in south-western Alabama, surrounded on three sides by the Alabama River. The women of Gees Bend have developed a bold, innovative quiltmaking style
that has become the rage of the art world and influential New York Times art critic Michael Kimmelman declared it as some of the most miraculous works of modern art America has produced. The current exhibition Mary Lee
Bendolph: Gee’s Bend Quilts and Beyond (2007, Austin Museum of Art) focuses on the work of star Gee’s Bend quiltmaker, Mary Lee Bendolph, and her immediate family. The exhibition was launched in the fall of 2006 and its
current stop at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia marks the first time that a major exhibition of the Gee’s Bend quilts has been exhibited in Canada.
The Gee’s Bend quiltmakers have been immortalized in the documentary, The Quiltmakers of Gee’s Bend, appeared on Martha Stewart Living and in Oprah Winfreys O Magazine. Their quilts have been featured on the 39 cent US stamp, their prints were selected as the featured art for American embassies and they were honored at the Whitehouse.
Admission for the Gees Bend Quiltmakers Nova Scotia Tour will vary with each venue. For information and the program for each stop, visit the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia website at www.agns.gov.ns.ca or call Laura
Carmichael at 902.424.2708.
The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia strives to act as a gateway for the visual arts in Atlantic Canada by bringing the art of the world to Nova Scotia and the art of Nova Scotia to the world. It is an agency of the Province of Nova Scotia responsible for the preservation, exhibition and education of art through its branches in Halifax, Yarmouth and through various outreach programs.
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Gees Bend Quiltmakers Nova Scotia Tour
AGNS Western Branch, Yarmouth
July 10, 2007, 6:00pm - 9:00pm
Admission: $7/$5
Our Ancestors Garden:
Presentation by Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers and African NTelevision, 60mins)
6:00pm - 7:00pm
This Emmy award-winning documentary details the uncovering of a group of elder quiltmakers from Gee’s Bend by art collector Bill Arnett, and the subsequent international acclaim of their work following the exhibition Quilts of Gee’s Bend (Whitney Museum of Art 2002). Influential New York
Times art critic, Michael Kimmelman, described the quilts as some of the most miraculous works of modern art America has produced.
Introduction
7:01pm - 7:10pm
Angela Collier, Coordinator of AGNS Western Branch, David Woods, AGNS
Associate Curator African Canadian Art
The Meaning of Gee’s Bend Quilts
7:11pm - 7:30 pm
Gee’s Bend quiltmakers Mary Lee Bendolph, Louisiana Pettway-Bendolph and art curator Matt Arnett of Tinwood Alliance, Atlanta, Georgia discuss the meaning of Gee’s Bend quilts, their cultural and social links with the African American story and their opinion on contemporary art in America.
Q&A
7:31pm - 7:45pm
Quiltmaking Demonstration: Quiltmaking the Gee’s Bend Way
7:46pm - 8:15pm
Mary Lee Bendolph, Louisiana Pettway-Bendolph illustrate the techniques they use to create their unique, improvisational quilt patterns.
Slide presentation: African Nova Scotian Quilts with David Woods
8:16pm - 8:30pm
Artist, Author and Art Gallery of Nova Scotia Associate curator, David Woods, discusses the long-standing African Nova Scotian quiltmaking tradition, contemporary developments in that tradition led by quiltmakers in
New Glasgow and presents a selection of slides of African Nova Scotian quilts.
Our Ancestors’ Garden: Exhibition of African Nova Scotian Quilts
8:31pm - 8:45pm
Gee’s Bend quiltmakers book signing
8:45pm - 9:30pm
If you have any questions contact me at anytime,
Angela Collier
Coordinator
Art Gallery of Nova Scotia
Western Branch
341 Main Street
Yarmouth Nova Scotia
B5A 1E7
Ph:902 749 2248 /749 2251
Fax:902 749 2255
Visit www.agns.gov.ns.ca
Official web site of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia
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For YarmouthCounty.com, this has been Brian Hurlburt, and I invite you to Make it a great day!
Sincerely,
Brian Hurlburt
customerservice@yarmouthcounty.com
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Helpful Links
Visit www.agns.gov.ns.ca