Community Quilt Art Challenge Issued

For Immediate Release

6/8/2010

Contact:
Kristin Mravinec, Curator
Greater Southwest Historical Museum
580-226-3857
gshmcurator@cableone.net

Community Quilt Art Challenge Issued

Ardmore, OK — As part of the September 2010 Frontier Days activities, the Greater Southwest Historical Museum has issued its First Community Quilt Art Challenge. The theme for the challenge is “Something Old, Something New, Something Blue.” The Challenge is being initiated to fund conservation of the Museum’s collections as a way of preserving and protecting artifacts for future generations.

“The prospect of combining our conservation efforts with the interest in quilts is a good fit for the Museum,” stated Director Michael Anderson. “With numerous quilts in the Museum’s collections and many talented quilters in the area, this project is the perfect fit to channel public interest and promote the Museum as well as its collections.”

For the challenge, wall hangings are being requested that represent the theme and south-central Oklahoma. The challenge piece must include vintage or reproduction vintage fabrics as well as contemporary fabrics. Quilts should also include fabrics in the shades of blue. The quilter may use any method of piecing and quilting, whether strip piecing, paper piecing, appliqué, free motion, hand embroidery, or another favorite technique. Quilts can be done individually or part of a group.

Quilts must include one of the following patterns: Baskets, Grandmother’s Flower Garden, Mariner’s Compass, Nine-Patch, Road to Oklahoma, Sailboat, or Star. The quilt must be no larger than 45 inches but need not be square. Quilts must be hand or machine quilted with a binding and a 4-inch sleeve on the back. The registration deadline for submitting the wall-hangings is August 31, 2010.

A Committee will judge the quilts and award three cash prizes: $100 for 1st Place, $75 for 2nd Place, and $50 for 3rd Place. One quilt best representing the theme and south-central Oklahoma will be selected by the committee as the Theme Award Quilt. The quilt to receive the People’s Choice Award will be selected by popular vote. Both the Theme Quilt and the People’s Choice Quilt will become part of the Museum’s Permanent Collection.

The quilts will then be featured in an exhibit for the Museum’s Frontier Days on September 11, 2010, and in exhibits at other local organizations. Entries will then be donated to the Greater Southwest Historical Museum and auctioned off at a fundraiser to fund conservation efforts. “Like all non-profit organizations our Museum relies heavily on the support of its public. Programs like the Community Quilt Art Challenge bring greater awareness to the challenges and needs that face our museum’s collection and hopefully encourages them to become a part of our organization’s efforts to safeguard the collections,” Anderson said.

Collection objects slated first for conservation are two bronze sculptures donated by the Jerome Westheimer, Sr. Family - Taza by Allan Houser and Chickasaw Man by Doug Hyde. Both pieces were commissioned for the Museum by the family. Taza and Chickasaw Man are located outside the Museum’s front entrance. “The Quilt Art Challenge will fund efforts to stabilize and maintain both sculptures and returned them to their former beauty as well as lead to future conservation of objects in the Museum’s collections including 10 World War II-era paintings housed in a relocated 1940s Ardmore Air Force Base Barracks,” states Curator Kristin Mravinec.

The Community Quilt Art Challenge is made possible by the following sponsors: Jerome Westheimer Family Foundation, GSHM Board of Trustees, Southern Oklahoma Quilters Guild, Carter County Genealogical Society, American National Bank, Carol Lee Simms, Joel Wellnitz, Dr. Ralph and Frances Kampschimdt, Ann and Bob Kerr, Helen Thompson, and Mary H. Wood

For further information or assistance, please contact Kristin Mravinec at (580) 226-3857 or at gshmcurator@cableone.net. Information flyers with challenge rules can be downloaded on the Museum’s website www.gshm.org or picked up at 35 Sunset Drive.

Downloads:: Community Quilt Art Festival Flyer; Museum Hosting Quilted Textile Appraiser; Something Old, Something New, Something Blue