African American Quilters at the 2009 Cityfolk Festival

by Sara Cogswell, curator of the 2009 Material Culture area at the Cityfolk Festival

When Cityfolk asked me to curate the material culture exhibition for the 2009 Cityfolk Festival, I was very excited and honored. As a new resident, I was looking for ways to plug into the cultural arts in Dayton. Curating this year’s show on quilts was a delightful prospect. However, I knew there would be challenges, as I did not have the advantage of years of established contacts and networks within the arts community. Fortunately, Ohio has a strong network of quilters, quilting guilds and organizations, and numerous wonderful venues that are frequent sites for quilting exhibitions, both traditional and contemporary.

Another fortunate piece came when the Cityfolk staff encouraged me to contact African American quilter Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi. Dr. Mazloomi had participated in a previous material culture textile exhibition several years ago. I contacted Dr. Mazloomi, and shortly thereafter found myself in her West Chester home studio, awed by the beauty and creativity of her work, and enthralled by her depth of historical knowledge and wonderful storytelling. I came away from that delightful visit with my first exhibition participant.

Quilter, historian, author and curator, Dr. Mazloomi is among the most influential African-American quilt historians and quilting artists of our time. She produces awe inspiring bodies of work which are shown internationally, much of it containing references to African American life and history, as well as harkening back to a shared African ancestry. In 2003, Dr. Mazloomi was awarded the first Ohio Heritage Fellowship Award. Ohio Heritage Fellows are among the state’s living cultural treasures. She is also the founder of the Women of Color Quilters Network. The network supports its 1700 members‚ through presenting, providing venues for sharing technical information, grantwriting, and other services. It offers quilts and fiber art to museums for exhibition, and researches and documents African American quiltmaking. Another important component of the Network's activity is its use of quiltmaking in social and economic development projects.

In addition to Dr. Mazloomi, two other African American quilters, Carolyn Crump and Frances Turner, have agreed to be participants. The participation of Carolyn Crump, a nationally known quilter from Houston, Texas, is being sponsored by the Women of Color Quilters Network. Born in Detroit, Crump’s artistic talent was nurtured from the age of eight by family and friends. She received an art scholarship to the Cranbrook College of Art, and earned a degree in Advertising Design. Her stunning quilts – sewn canvasses that tell powerful stories – have been presented throughout North America and Europe in one-woman and group shows. Last year, her unique illustration style earned the national Gold prize from the Newspaper Association of America.

Frances Turner is a native Daytonian, though her family background is southern with deep African heritage. Ms. Turner is a seamstress and tailor with 47 years of experience and “a love of fiber and all natural things”, which evolved into establishing herself as a doll artist and quilter. Her favorite fabrics are those obtained directly from Africa, and her work incorporates beads, shells, and unusual things she finds in her endless scanning of her surroundings. Turner is a member of an outstanding group of artists, headed by Bing Davis, which produces an annual exhibition entitled “Dayton Skyscrapers”, held in the Schuster Performing Arts Center. Most recently, her work was included in the exhibition “Women in Art: Unheard Voices” at Wright State University.

Five additional quilters have been added to the diverse group of July participants. I have found infinite creativity in the way each artist approaches their work, incorporating their cultural influences and experiences, some from their culture of origin, others from a culture that has drawn them in. They include a quilter from Puerto Rico, an artist and teacher from Korea, a quilter from Laos working in the Hmong tradition, a traditional Appalachian quilter, and a quilter who incorporates fabrics that she has dyed using traditional Japanese techniques. To round out the exposition, there will likely be two traditional quilters added in the near future.