Bringing The World Home To You

© 2024 WUNC North Carolina Public Radio
120 Friday Center Dr
Chapel Hill, NC 27517
919.445.9150 | 800.962.9862
91.5 Chapel Hill 88.9 Manteo 90.9 Rocky Mount 91.1 Welcome 91.9 Fayetteville 90.5 Buxton 94.1 Lumberton 99.9 Southern Pines 89.9 Chadbourn
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

The Artistry Of Rural Alabama Meets The Art World

Warren Wilson College and The Center for Craft, Creativity and Design in Asheville present Gee's Bend From Quilts to Prints.
Credit warren-wilson.edu
Warren Wilson College and The Center for Craft, Creativity and Design in Asheville present Gee's Bend From Quilts to Prints.

    

In 2002, the art world was rocked to its foundation by a group of unusual, abstract quilts made by African American women from Gee’s Bend, Alabama. 

Gee’s Bend was settled by local slaves in the 19th century. Its isolated location, which was connected to the outside world by only an unreliable ferry and an old dirt road, kept the inhabitants and their quilting traditions hidden from the rest of the world for many generations. But the insularity bred a sort of magic. Using salvage shreds of old clothing, the women of Gee’s Bend created quilts of great aesthetic richness.

...when I got there (to the Houston MFA) and I saw quilts hanging on a wall that women in our community had done, it was just amazing that people thought it was art… - Louisiana Bendolph

Now, some of the artists of Gee’s Bend are finding new ways to share their intuitive artistic craftsmanship with audiences through printmaking. 

…looking at the colors underneath each other, made me think about what lies underneath us as people… - Loretta Bennett

Host Frank Stasio talks with Gee’s Bend Quilters Loretta Bennett and Louisiana Bendolph and Master Printer Pam Paulson about an exhibit showcasing their art in a new medium at Asheville’s Warren Wilson Collegeand The Center for Craft, Creativity and Design.

The exhibit at Warren Wilson College will be showing from September 5 to December 20 and the exhibit at The Center for Craft, Creativity and Design will be showing from September 5 to January 10, 2015.

There will also be several other events that spotlight the Gee's Bend Quilts and the Artist behind them at Warren Wilson College. Click herefor more information.

Hady Mawajdeh is a native Texan, born and raised in San Antonio. He listened to Fresh Air growing up and fell in love with public radio. He earned his B.A. in Mass Communication at Texas State University and specialized in electronic media. He worked at NPR affiliate stations KUT and KUTX in Austin, Texas as an intern, producer, social media coordinator, and a late-night deejay.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.
Related Stories
More Stories