EXHIBIT ANNOUNCEMENT

DATE: 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. daily, March 12-April 24, 2016

EXHIBITION: “A Cloth of Earth and Sky: The Healing Power of Nature through the Eyes of African American Quilters”

Nearly 50 quilts on display this spring at Matthaei Botanical Gardens reveal the connection between nature and well-being. With their vivid colors, patterns and textures, the quilts also reflect the rich history and cultural legacy embraced by African American quilters.

Members of the Great Lakes African American Quilters Network created the quilts for “A Cloth of Earth and Sky.” The network’s members come from metro Detroit and as far away as Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, and range in skill from beginner to advanced. The quilters employ a variety of machine and hand-quilting methods, and traditional and improvisational styles and fabrics.

Local schoolchildren also added their voices. Students from Eagle’s Nest Academy, a charter school in Flint, Mich., partnered with the Ruth Mott Foundation and volunteers from the Flint Area African American Quilters Guild to produce three quilts inspired by Applewood, the Charles Stewart Mott estate.

The children’s quilts comprise one submission titled “Floral Happiness Found at Applewood.” To create the distinctive color patterns on their quilts, the children pressed flower petals from Applewood into muslin squares. Guild volunteers then helped them stitch squares together to form the final works.

The concept for the exhibition originated with U-M staff members Karen Simpson and Debbie Taylor. Simpson, of U-M Student Financial Services, and Taylor, of the U-M College of Engineering, imagined a quilt exhibition that would give members of the local quilting community an opportunity to tell their stories.

“Quilts, to me, are the voices of artists singing something about themselves and their beliefs out into the world,” Simpson said.

The idea that quilts and quilting possess healing properties or open a path to mindfulness has been explored in other exhibitions, such as “Healing Quilts in Medicine” at the U-M Hospital, Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere; and Lisa Ellis’ “Sacred Threads” quilting project. In “A Cloth of Earth and Sky,” pairing quilts with images of nature only strengthens the link between nature and wellness, Simpson said.

PLACE: U-M Matthaei Botanical Gardens, 1800 N. Dixboro Rd., Ann Arbor

INFORMATION: The exhibition is free and open to the public. Visit myumi.ch/Jm9wP

SPONSORS: U-M Matthaei Botanical Gardens & Nichols Arboretum, Great Lakes African American Quilters Network.