Modern Quilt Guild pop-up show in Kenosha
Modern quilts were the stars at a pop-up show in Kenosha, Wisconsin recently. I wish you guys all could have been there, because it really was a fun and exciting event, but just in case you weren't, I thought I would share some of my impressions.
The Kenosha Art Association has monthly pop-up gallery shows, and June's show, "Square Up for the Arts," featured quilts made by members of the Milwaukee Modern Quilt Guild. Margaret Heller from Ready for Bed Quilts and one of our guild's wonderful members, Bethany Wise, worked tirelessly with the Art Association and other Kenosha community members to make it happen.
What I think was really special about this show was that it was a community event. So it wasn't just for quilters. How awesome is that? As Bethany said in a Facebook post afterwards, getting quilters to come to a quilt show is easy. Showing quilts to the general public is much more challenging. But Bethany and everyone else who put together this amazing show did just that. In fact, I would wager that the majority of the people who came to the show were not quilters at all—and yet they seemed genuinely interested in what we were doing. That's a huge win in my book. : ) I love showing people a side of quilting that they almost certainly didn't know existed before.
Anyway, the Art Association lined up a really cool vacant storefront in downtown Kenosha in which to hang our quilts (supplemented by other artwork, such as these flowers made entirely from found items). A steady stream of people went through the entire evening.
Bethany did quite the job hanging all those quilts way up in the rafters of that extremely high ceiling! It was a dramatic effect—not to mention interesting how looking up at the quilts seemed to change the visual impact of some of them. The height gave me a whole new perspective on my Warm and Cool quilt (on the right).
Here's a sampling of some of the quilts from the show:
By Erin Pann
A Summer Sampler Series quilt by Rebecca Bark
By Bethany Wise
Did I mention there was live music too? : ) This dude was rocking out under quilts by Beth Haferkorn (left) and me.
By Margaret Heller of Ready for Bed Quilts
By Barbara Mars
By Rebecca Bark (left) and Marisa McKee
By Beth Haferkorn
All those amazing paintings you see hanging with our quilts were done by local artist Eric Sosa.
Now who could have put those out? : ) (The books were door prizes.)
All in all, this was such a wonderful event. Thank you to Bethany and everyone in Kenosha for putting on a great show (and for coming out to see it)! I hope we'll be able to have more events like this around the area in the future!
P.S. Tomorrow I'm headed to a very different kind of quilt show—International Quilt Festival in Chicago! I'll be there with Faith, so if you're there, keep an eye out for us!