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Quilting by the Lake is thrilled to welcome Hilary Morrow Fletcher
as the opening lecturer in 2005. Ms. Fletcher is the Quilt National
Project Director, Dairy Barn Southeastern Ohio Cultural Arts Center,
Athens, Ohio. With an extensive list of credits, and a growing quilt
collection of her own, Hilary is sought internationally for her
expert knowledge. Please join us opening night for, “The
Evolution of the Art Quilt: A Quilt National Retrospective”.
Here Hilary explains her development as
a quilt artist:
Although I had enjoyed doing a variety of needlework
since I was a child, I was never really interested in making quilts.
I believed that quilts were repetitious patterns intended to be
bedcovers. I knew that the decor of my home was not appropriate
for a traditional quilt and that, if I were to start to make a quilt,
I would have quickly become bored and would decide to make three
pillows instead.
All of that changed in June, 1979 when I visited the first Quilt
National exhibit that was being held in a converted dairy barn near
my home. It was then that I discovered that quilts did not have
to be a repetition of someone else's designs and that they did not
have to go on beds. My life was irrevocably changed that day. These
were the kind of quilts I wanted to make!
I visited Quilt National '79 several times and had expressed enough
of an interest that I was asked to serve as a volunteer on the steering
committee for Quilt National '81. I helped with the jurying and
the installation of the exhibit and quickly became aware of how
much was involved with the administration of such a project.
In Fall 1982, The Dairy Barn Cultural Arts Center -- the organization
responsible for the Quilt National exhibits -- was without a secretary.
Several women volunteered to provide secretarial services one day
a week. I was Ms. Wednesday.
My primary responsibility at that time was to process the entries
for Quilt National '83 which were arriving by the dozens. One day
the Executive Director asked me if I was interested in serving as
the Project Director for the event. Needless to say, I decided to
accept this proposal. The rest, as they say, "is history."
The responsibilities of Quilt National Project Director begin almost
immediately once the doors close on the previous Quilt National
exhibit. Although the title "Project Director" may not
be very descriptive, I think it is fair to say that it is a demanding
administrative position that is involved with absolutely every aspect
of the exhibit except one -- I don't make any of the quilts. (Although
someday, maybe I will -- I certainly have enough fabric, books and
inspiration.) The timeline for Quilt National is ten single-spaced
typed pages.
In addition to serving the Dairy Barn as Coordinator for Quilt National,
I am also the director of The Dairy Barn Touring Exhibits Program.
My responsibilities include dealing with the artists/owners who
are loaning the works to us and the museums and galleries who will
display the collections. Here, too, I find myself doing everything
from designing the crates in which the works will travel to printing
the display tags that accompany the collections.
These two jobs combined with lots of other things that I do at the
Dairy Barn keep me (and frequently my husband, too) quite busy.
In addition to working with quilts, I am building what may someday
be an important collection of innovative quilts. My primary motivation
for purchasing a quilt is that it must be one that both my husband
and I love. Most often it has been made by one of the hundreds of
artists whom I am fortunate to count among my personal friends.
This collection includes work by established artists including Michael
James, Nancy Crow, Deidre Amsden, Caryl Bryer Fallert, Joyce Marquess
Carey, Jan Myers-Newbury, Erika Carter and others. The collection
also includes works by emerging artists.
There is no question that quilts have changed my life and will,
I expect, continue to be a dominant element in my life.
Oh, by the way -- I have since learned that traditional quilts are
not the uninteresting works that I had once thought. I now realize
that quilts have always been a wonderful medium through which the
creativity and artistry of generations of quiltmakers has found
expression.
Here are just some of the professional activities Hilary Fletcher
has been involved with since 1983.
- Aug, 2005: Guest
Speaker, Contemporary Quilt Assoc, Seattle, WA, “Evolution
of the Art Quilt”; Issaquah Quilters, “Traditions
and Transitions”
- July, 2005: Guest
Speaker, Quilting by the Lake, New York, “Evolution of the
Art Quilt”
- Jan. 2005: Author,
Foreword, Quilt National Compendium, Lark Books, due Sept. 2005
- Dec. 2004: Guest
Speaker, San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, “Evolution
of the Art Quilt
- March, 2004: Guest
Speaker, Contemporary Quilt Assoc, Tempe, AZ, “Evolution
of the Art Quilt
- Feb., 2004: Guest
Speaker, Ohio Craft Museum, Columbus, OH, "Everything You
Always Wanted to Know about Collecting Art Quilts" (last
minute weather cancellation)
- Oct., 2003: Guest
Speaker, Lauren Rodgers Museum, Laurel, MS, "Traditions and
Transitions"
- July, 2003: Guest
Speaker, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, "Evolution
of the Art Quilt"
- Winter, 2002: Subject
of article in Quilting Quarterly Journal (Vol 31, No. 4), by Sylvia
Landman
- Dec., 2002: Guest
Speaker, Riffe Gallery, Columbus, OH, "Traditions and Transitions"
- Oct, 2002: Nominee:
Governor's Award for the Arts in Ohio, 2003; Arts Patron Category
- April, 2002: Member
of curatorial panel for "Ohio Pioneers of the Art Quilt Movement
Exhibition, shown in Columbus, OH, summer, 2003
- Feb., 2002: Guest
Speaker, Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV, "Traditions
and Transitions"
- Jan, 2002: author,
article about American Art Quilts, published in Handi-Crafts,
publication of Japanese Handicraft Association
Dec., 2001: Guest
Speaker, Crocker Museum of Art; Sacramento, CA, "Traditions
and Transitions"
- May, 2001:
Filmed segment for Program #762, Simply Quilting, HGTV Network,
shown periodically
- May, 2001: Panel
member, Studio Art Quilt Associates, Issues Related to Juried
Exhibitions
- Feb, 2001: Curator,
Exhibition of American Contemporary Quilts, Netherlands Textielmuseum,
Tilburg, Netherlands
- Oct, 2000: subject
of article, "Quilting Entrepreneurs: Leading the Show,"
by Victoria Stuart, Quilters Newsletter Magazine, No. 326
- Aug, 2000: Invited
to become member of Selection Panel for Quilters' Hall of Fame
- Oct., 1999: Guest
Speaker, The City Museum, St Louis, MO, "Evolution of the
Art Quilt"
- May, 1999: Guest
Speaker, Studio Art Quilt Associates Athens, OH, "Being a
Collector"
- Nov., 1998: Guest
Speaker, The New England Quilt Museum, Lowell, MA, "Evolution
of the Art Quilt"
- April, 1998: Guest
Speaker, The Textile Museum; Washington, DC, "Evolution of
the Art Quilt"
- Jan, 1998: Award
Recipient; "Eusebia Hunkins Award for Support of the Arts,"
Dairy Barn Cultural Arts Center, Athens, Ohio
- Nov., 1997: Author
of article on “History of Quilt National,” published
in Quilts Japan Magazine
- Dec., 1995: Subject
of article by Louise McCormick Gibney, Art/Quilt Magazine, Issue
#4, Fall 1995
- June, 1995: Guest
Speaker, Quilt Surface Design Symposium, Columbus, OH, "The
Evolution of the Art Quilt: A Quilt National Retrospective"
- March, 1995: Author,
introductory statement for exhibition catalog, "Redefining
the Quilt: New Boundaries" published by The Deland Museum
of Art, Deland, FL
- July, 1994: Guest
Speaker, Anchorage Museum of Art, Anchorage, AK, "Contemporary
Quilts, The Traditions Continue"
- Dec., 1993: Collaborator/selector
for "88 Leaders in the Quilt World Today," Nihon Vogue
Publishers, Tokyo, Japan, 1995
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