New quilt-themed public art project to debut during AQS QuiltWeek – September 2017
Paducah, KY, June 16, 2016 –As plans for the Fall Paducah 2017 American Quilter’s Society annual QuiltWeek® and the new Holiday Inn Paducah Riverfront evolve around the Schroeder Expo Center and Carroll Convention Center, Paducah is preparing another creative component to its ongoing quilting and fiber art assets. Plans are underway for a series of Quilt City USA® Murals to debut in September 2017. The privately funded floodwall mural series will be located on the floodwall facing the Carroll Convention Center between 4th and 5th Streets on what is known as Park Street.
The Quilt City USA Murals project is the brainchild of Mayor Gayle Kaler who saw this as an opportunity to enhance Paducah’s reputation as an international destination for quilters and fiber art enthusiasts. “With the UNESCO City of Crafts and Folk Art designation, the quilt murals are a perfect opportunity to showcase how Paducah is a catalyst for connecting cultures through creativity,” notes the Mayor. “There’s no better vantage point for a 24/7 public art attraction than the 19-panel concrete floodwall outside the Convention Center, where nearly 5,000 quilters attend workshops with internationally celebrated instructors and 30,000 visitors from across the globe are immersed in their craft. It’s what makes us who we are.”
A planning meeting to discuss the then proposed project and to draft painting and sponsorship guidelines was conducted by the Mayor in March with members of the City’s Parks and Planning Departments, Paducah School of Art & Design, American Quilter’s Society, Paducah Wall to Wall Dafford Murals board, and other interested parties and organizations. Dr. Scott Garrett, chairman of the Paducah Wall to Wall Dafford Murals board, is also a committee member for the Quilt City USA Murals and will act as liaison between the separate boards.
Dr. Jay Downs Siska of Paducah is the Project Administrator. Siska manned a booth during April 2016 QuiltWeek to introduce the concept to the international quilting community. “The excitement by the quilters was consistent and energetic,” notes Siska. “Quilt guilds, international corporations, and individual sponsors showed interest and wanted to discuss the project. I watched them look out the windows of the Convention Center lobby and imagine vibrant colorful quilts painted on those blank walls. Their eyes lit up, and they always smiled.”
Bonnie Browning, AQS Executive Show Director and Quilt City USA Murals committee member, states, “This is a perfect opportunity for individual quilters or quilt guilds around the country to nominate quilts and/or sponsor a mural section. Many guilds have funds they are saving; sponsoring this project would make a great way for a guild to be recognized right there with the mural, where everyone who attends activities at the Schroeder Expo Center and the Carroll Convention Center will see the murals.”
The Quilt City USA Murals project will be visually different than the Paducah Wall to Wall project. The quilt murals will be artistic renditions of actual quilts as opposed to portraits from Paducah’s historic past. The quilt murals will be privately sponsored by quilters, quilt guilds, or interested individuals from anywhere across the globe. Locally-based artists will be juried and selected for the painting process. The $20,000 sponsorship will cover the artist fee, supplies, installation, and ongoing maintenance for the mural. No taxpayers’ dollars will be used to fund the project.
Char Downs, of Pinecone Gallery in Lower Town, is Lead Artist for the project. Downs recently travelled to Philadelphia to investigate a highly durable and fade resistant mural painting process that has been used since the 1980s–where paint is applied to “parachute” cloth (pellon) that is later adhered to the concrete floodwall. Pellon is also a material used by quilters. “I’m very excited about this process,” notes Downs. “This opens up the artist pool to a much larger group of painters. Also, since it is not being painted outside, artists can work year round on the project in their studios.”
“The Paducah quilt murals will not look like barn quilt squares,” notes Downs. “The goal of this project is to recreate a trompe l’oeil (visual illusion in art used to trick the eye into perceiving a painted detail as a three-dimensional object) version of the quilt that will showcase stitching detail, color variations, and texture. “It’s a very complex process that takes a lot of skill. There will be a selection process for artists andquilts!”
The committee currently is developing guidelines on mural sponsorship and the quilt nomination process as well as the procedure whereby artists can audition to be considered for painting the selected quilts. The sponsorship information form is available on the AQS website at www.quiltweek.com/home/quilt-city-usa-murals.
For interviews about Quilt City USA Murals, contact Dr. Jay Downs Siska, Project Administrator, at 270-443-0895 or jay.quiltmurals@gmail.com.