Quilt Art: International Expressions is a vibrant exhibition featuring the work of Quilt Art, a unique group of 22 contemporary quilt artists from eight countries. Now, American audiences are experiencing Quilt Art for the first time. Quilt Art aims to extend the boundaries of the quilt medium and achieve wider recognition for the quilt as an art form.

 

 Founded in Britain in 1985, the group aims to extend the boundaries of the quilt medium and achieve wider recognition for the quilt as an art form. Each member of Quilt Art brings a distinctive approach – whether starting from observation or inspiration, or expressing personal or social issues – the resulting work is diverse, dynamic, and challenging. Many of the artists originally trained in other fields, but have found the tactile process of patterning, sewing, layering and joining fabric to be an ideal means of self-expression. The artists of Quilt Art explore a range of abstract and thought-provoking ideas with an ever-changing variety of surface techniques, combined with color, texture and stitch.

 

 

Plant Adaptation Up Close, A Biological and Artistic Interpretation is an extraordinary new traveling exhibition produced by the Botanic Garden of Smith College in collaboration with the Smith Microscopy and Imaging Facility, and Northampton, Mass. Artist Joan Wiener. While the Earth’s diverse environments create many challenges for plant survival, plants have evolved with special adaptations that allow them to thrive under hostile conditions. This exhibit explores plant adaptations as diverse as clinging to rock cliffs and eating other plants. Biological explanations and artistic photography bring to life the resourcefulness and beauty of the plant kingdom. The viewer delves deep into a microscopic realm unseen by the naked eye. Imagine what an insect caught in a Venus flytrap might be seeing. Put on the 3-D glasses and enjoy!

 

 

 

Some stories are immortal: the witch who transforms children into gingerbread; the goblin who spins straw into gold; or the fair princess lives among dwarfs in the forest to escape a wicked queen. The brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were scholars and collectors of such tales, and their versions of “Hansel and Gretel,” “Rumpelstiltskin,” and “Snow White” (among others) have become the classic versions of those stories for the last 200 years. Since they were first published in 1812, the Grimms’ tales have been adapted by numerous illustrators, playwrights, and filmmakers.

Call for Entry
The Edsel & Eleanor Ford House is celebrating the 200th anniversary of the first publication by the Brothers Grimm in 1812. From the over 200 stories published by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, nine stories have been selected to serve as inspiration for a juried exhibition beginning in July and closing November 2012. For registration details or more information, please click here.