Harriet Tubman Quilt celebrated as part of this year’s Quilts=Art=Quilts exhibit
When Auburn native, Blake Chamberlain, heard the news that Harriet Tubman would be on the $20 bill, he knew he needed to submit his one of a kind Tubman quilt to this year’s Quilts=Art=Quilts exhibit at the Schweinfurth Art Center.
The national exhibit garnered 298 submissions from artists all over the world. Despite the intense competition, Chamberlain’s Harriet Tubman made it into the exhibit in the first round of judging.
According to Chamberlain, who now lives in Seattle Washington, he came to quilting through a collaboration with fiber artist, Shelia Frampton Cooper. Frampton Cooper saw an exhibit of Chamberlain’s at the Seward House which featured several paintings of social visionaries from the central New York area. She encouraged him to create one of his paintings on fabric and then agreed to quilt the top. The quilt was completed in time to be shown in an exhibit curated by Frampton Cooper at Visions Art Museum in San Diego.
“I had never painted on fabric before,” Chamberlain said, “I did not have as much control over it, and it made me go with the flow. It was completely new and I want to do it again. Since this project, I have been asked by other quilters to collaborate.”
When asked about why he choose Harriet Tubman, Chamberlain said, “I remember hearing her story growing up in Auburn and it always filled me with pride to know that she lived in my town. The teachers at my school really made her story real for me.”
The exhibit will be on view until Jan. 8, 2017. The Schweinfurth is located at 205 Genesee St., Auburn, and is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 1 to 5. Admission is $10, which includes both QAQ and American Quilts: History and Art (on view upstairs). Free entry for exhibiting artists, Art Center members and children aged 12 and under.
The events and related events will be free of charge on First Fridays, Nov. 4 and Dec. 2 from 5 to 8 p.m.
For more information, please call 315.255.1553 or visit www.myartcenter.org.