Landmarks Gallery - First Floor
Roots and Threads
A Garden in Transition La Conner in Bloom Challenge March 27 - April 28, 2024 Every year, in collaboration with the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, our Museum provides a theme to inspire a piece of fiber art to enter into our annual “La Conner in Bloom Challenge.” This year the challenge theme was based on a quote from an unknown source, “Spring: a lovely reminder of how beautiful change can truly be.” We invited artists to explore this change through garden-related artworks. Some chose the transition from seed to root to bud, while other artists considered the change of seasons and the passing of time in one’s own life, that is, the garden and all its happenings as a larger metaphor. Here at the Museum we are experiencing our own transition period. We hired a new Curator last February, whose premier exhibit is installed on the second floor, and more recently, we hired a new Education Coordinator to help grow our Education programming. Most notably though, we are in the midst of our search for a new Executive Director, as Amy Green will be retiring in July after being in the position for 11 years. Over the years, and in her own words, Amy has “had the opportunity to collaborate with some of the most talented and dedicated individuals both in the arts and in the Museum industry. The support, mentorship, and camaraderie I have received from the Board, my staff, the volunteers, the artists and community members have made my tenure here especially memorable.” That being said, the La Conner in Bloom Challenge themes have been Amy’s responsibility in recent years, and this final challenge felt especially close to home, as she planned her move out of state. Announcing these challenges every winter, shortly after our International Quilt & Fiber Arts Festival, was a turning point in feeling the transition toward the next chapter of her life. Amy, we look forward to everything you do! In the spirit of a traditional challenge, artist names are kept anonymous for voting purposes, so please, vote for your favorite artwork in the Landmarks Gallery. At the end of exhibit, the winner will be announced and publicized on our website. If you are interested in knowing which artworks belong to specific artists, please don’t hesitate to ask the volunteers for assistance. |
Second Floor
Shift Change
Curated by Brian Nigus March 6 - April 28, 2024 This exhibit is a “sampler platter” of interests from the Museum’s new Curator, Brian Nigus. “It’s not every day that a museum hires a curator,” is the quote that became the catalyst for Shift Change. After a year of coordinating pre-existing exhibitions, organizing shows from the Museum’s permanent collection and filling in calendar gaps where possible, the Museum is proud to present the first start-to-finish, group exhibition, put together by its new Curator. Shift Change not only refers to a new staff member starting their “shift,” but also references the shift that happens at a museum when a new curator is hired, acknowledging the reality of a different perspective and broader selection of artists. Shift Change contains 21 artists from across the US and Canada, all of them working in quilt and fiber arts, the Museum’s namesake mediums, and all of them first-time exhibitors at the Museum. In particular, the exhibition includes modern and contemporary quilting, weaving, knitting, punch-needle, sculptures and other fiber art forms. The exhibitors have a combined resume that includes, but is not limited to, being in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Seattle Art Museum, the National Quilt Museum and the Cranbrook Art Museum. Solo exhibitions at the National Quilt Museum, Bellevue Arts Museum and the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. Artist Residencies at the Recology King County Program, the Soulangh Cultural Park in Taiwan and the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. Multiple invitees of the Dairy Barn Art Center’s Quilt National, the creator of A$ap Rocky’s 2021 Met Gala reveal, a Neddy Award Finalist and every artist combining for over half a million followers on Instagram. Artists Include: Liv Aanrud Max Adrian Margot Becker Jes Le Bon Lee Davignon Julie Sevilla Drake Audrey Esarey Zak Foster Julian Jamaal Jones Millicent Kennedy Chawne Kimber Taylor Krz Mashanda Lazarus Marc Manke Amanda Nadig Heidi Parkes Helen Parsons Kendall Ross Allyson Rousseau Joey Veltkamp Adeline Wang |
Third Floor
Stone Portraits
and Sacred Stonescapes Denise Labadie February 7 - May 5, 2024 Denise Labadie makes art quilts of megalithic stones and monoliths, and more recent monastic ruins. These history-rich structures are timeless, with the resulting quilts oftentimes evoking emotional, almost cellular remembrances of human pasts largely forgotten, and of feelings rarely surfaced. Denise's quilts are known for their moody and emotional realism – true-to-life stones and abstract landscapes – and, technically, for their assertive quilt top textures, hand-painted fabrics, the integrated use of multiple appliqué techniques, subtle color complexity, light management and shadowing, perspective, and craftsmanship and technique precision. Viewers often feel – particularly with her portals and passageways – that these story-telling quilts actually “pull them in”, that they want to actually go into and through them. Viewers are also fascinated that she constructs her quilts very much the same way as a stone mason builds a wall – individually cutting and appliquéing each stone (from her hand-painted fabric), one by one, working from the ground up. Labadie's goal is for fiber art to be seen as fine art – art that moves the viewer, evokes emotion, seems alive, makes you feel or remember something important, makes you want to go there, makes you want to be there now, in the moment. Her "stones" portfolio now exceeds 50 quilts. She is a multiple Quilt National (USA) award winner and her work is widely published. Labadie has had major solo exhibitions at both the US National Quilt Museum and multiple national quilt exhibitions worldwide including China, France, Italy, Germany, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, South Korea, and Spain. |
UPCOMING EXHIBITS
A Quilted Earth - Marie O'Kelley | May 1 - June 2, 2024
New Meditation
Silks & Weavings from Melissa Scherrer Paré & Audrey Ducas | May 1 - July 7, 2024
Word Quilts - Janine Holzman | May 8 - July 28, 2024
A Look Through Americana - From the Permanent Collection | June 5 - 30, 2024
Fiber Art Avian Rhapsody - Serap Whitmer | July 3 - 28, 2024
Quilts Japan: The 16th Quilt Nihon | July 10 - October 13, 2024
Having a Moment - Kendall Ross | July 31 - October 6, 2024
New Meditation
Silks & Weavings from Melissa Scherrer Paré & Audrey Ducas | May 1 - July 7, 2024
Word Quilts - Janine Holzman | May 8 - July 28, 2024
A Look Through Americana - From the Permanent Collection | June 5 - 30, 2024
Fiber Art Avian Rhapsody - Serap Whitmer | July 3 - 28, 2024
Quilts Japan: The 16th Quilt Nihon | July 10 - October 13, 2024
Having a Moment - Kendall Ross | July 31 - October 6, 2024