**Quiltmakers Of Gee's Bend [APT]
Friday, February 03, 2006 at 1:00AM
Sunday, February 05, 2006 at 8:00PM
Monday, February 13, 2006 at 8:00PM
Description
The artists are all descended from slaves who worked a plantation
called Pettway, located on the Alabama River. The slaver's surname
is still ubiquitous in the community. And the people still inhabit
the land their forebears once slaved. But now, they own it. Through
generations, the women of Gees Bend have taught their daughters to
quilt, using any piece of material available - from feed sacks to
old work clothes. During times when self-expression was discouraged,
singing and the unique quilt patterns represented these African-
American's only creative outlets. Geographically and culturally
isolated from other communities, techniques and styles were left to
develop with little outside influence, and hence this quilting
coterie has been compared to the great artistic enclaves of the
Italian Renaissance. Quilts that once kept families of sometimes 16
children warm inside drafty log cabins, now hang in the world's
great museums.