In an e-mail to the participating artists, Bethany described the set-up of the exhibit thus:
[I] Had a nice visit at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum in Almonte with fibre friends on Saturday and thoroughly enjoyed seeing your beautiful SAQA My Corner of the World Canada quilts hanging throughout the Museum. The artwork is in a number of various areas through the Museum, as the big PUPPET exhibit is in the main gallery on the first floor. There were not enough of the SAQA quilts to fill the big Gallery, but honestly, I love the juxtaposition of the quilts in areas where the visitors walk and stop to talk, along the stairwells, front lobby, near the gift shop entrance and they are spectacular in the big upper floor gallery, scattered along the walls as the visitors visit the "Fabric of a Small Town" exhibit that is permanent now in the mill after several years of restorations just completed and celebrates the history of the MILL - and why so many visit the Mill Museum so beautifully restored by volunteers for the Almonte Community. We are blessed to have the quilts in this beautiful summer location during tourist season for sure.
Many of the quilts are in small groups, and as you can understand, in an old Mill with scared stone and plaster walls, the hanging options are few. I simply loved the way the art quilts worked to draw the viewers, hanging proudly along the walls among the Mill equipment, the stacks of wooden trays for sorting bobbins and small tools of the trade and the looms and carding equipment - samples of the actual cloth making. So appropriate to our story. I did capture all of your quilts on the cell phone, and will get better photos next visit!
...Your quilts have survived their travels to England, France, Italy and Poland over the past two years very nicely... and they look beautiful in their setting. It was a rainy day, but I had a chance to get a few good cell phone photos which I have posted at the SAQA Central Canada Blog... they are random and apologies to Janet, as her photo is a bit dark - but the quilt which is mainly made of woven strips of paper maps and sheers hangs tall and beautiful between two great windows in the Gallery - so do visit and see "White Pine: Titan of the Shield" for yourself in all of it's glory. There are catalogs of the exhibit available in the Museum Gift Shop, and they were in the hands of several of the visitors - so SAQA is getting the recognition and interest we hoped for! Each quilt tells YOUR story and is an amazing celebration of what Canada represented for you as you worked to tell your own story.
She posted her photos on the SAQA Central Canada blog, so you can see them HERE.
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| Jaynie Himsl's Poplar Point at the entrance to MCOTW: Canada in the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum |
Next, there's an exhibit on NOW at the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium in Calgary, Alberta. Entitled Abstraction, it's presented by the Calgary-based art quilt group "Spectra" and includes the work of these SAQA WC members, and friends: Ilse Anysas Salkauskas, Joyce Brown, Diane Duncan, Margaret Jessop, Marie McEachern, Beverly Patkau and Linda Van Gastel -- pictured below with colleagues at the recent Opening Reception:
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| Left to right: Nan Williams, Beverly Patkau, Margaret Jessop, Joyce Brown, an unidentified colleague, Linda Van Gastel, another unidentified colleague, Marie McEachern, Ilse Anysas Salkauskas, and Diane Duncan. |
The piece featured on the Jubilee's 'Gallery' web page is this one:
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| A Game of Life (c) 2018 - Ilse Anysas Salkauskas |
I understand there are other artists in the exhibit who aren't in the photo from the reception, and have asked Marie to send me more information -- and photos of the other work! 😊
While the Jubilee web page doesn't indicate how long the show is up, for those in the area who may want to view it, please note the following about Gallery hours at that venue:
The Jubilee Gallery is open during pre-show and intermission during Jubilee performances. Additional viewing hours are Monday to Friday from 8:30 AM – 4:30 PM.
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