I am thrilled to announce that We belong to one another (2023) has been acquired by the Nova Scotia Art Bank through its 2025 Art Bank Purchase Program. Following acquisition, artworks from the Art Bank are exhibited in government offices and agencies. Comprised of close to 2,400 works of art, most of the collection is on display in public spaces throughout the province.
By Her Hand: Contemporary Quilts Inspired by Quilts in the Nova Scotia Museum Collection with works by Marilyn Smulders and Andrea Tsang Jackson, 2023.
In 2019, I had the privilege of visiting the Nova Scotia Museum’s archive with fellow quilt artist Marilyn Smulders. Curator Lisa Bower pulled out a selection of quilts from the museum collection for us to look at. One of the things she impressed upon us is that the quilts held in the collection are not necessarily kept for their value as an art object — unique composition, colour selection or craftsmanship — but rather for the story and/or people behind it.
Nova Scotia Museum archive, with rolled quilts.
Curator Lisa Bower with Alice Currie’s green and white quilt.
We selected a few pieces and made new works inspired by them, displayed in the exhibition By Her Hand at the Nova Scotia Museum in Fall 2023. Here’s a tour of the exhibit:
Alice Currie completed her green and white quilt in 1933 while visiting her friend Maud. Their friendship spanned a couple of decades, with frequent visits between the two. They both enjoyed travel and traveled through the Panama Canal together in the late 1920s or early 1930s. The traditional “Robbing Peter to Pay Paul” quilt pattern is distinguished by an overlapping grid of circles, metaphoric for connections.
I’m very happy that folks will get to see this work in the future!
For more Tyvek quilts, see the Homewrap series.
