One of the things that is so dear to me in the quilting world is the respect quilters have for each other. The quilt can be "ugly', full of "flaws", quilters will say nice things about it, because they know the effort the maker made or they know where they themselves at one point started. Or sometimes they say nothing, which can be a good thing too. What I have never heard any quilter say: "My eyes don't want to see what you made. My eyes can't handle it, it is that bad. Your quilt offends me."
In quilting we know there are different styles, different tastes, we love unique and one of a kind pieces and agreement is just as often absent as present. "Why did you choose that border color? To me, it doesn't do anything for the quilt." It could sound a little harsh, but quilters know how to hear it. I have heard plenty of those discussions. Or another person would say: "Love the border!" Again another would say: "Why did you even do a border?"
All good. All opinions that can lead to a discussion. Agreement is not required, we all have room. All of us. We want to have room, we need room. Without room, we can't create.
Without knowing the details of their contract, I have to rely upon the publications on social media. SAQA (Studio Art Quilters Association, an organisation with a focus on art quilts) has their members well informed. AQS (American Quilter's Society) is silent about the issue, despite multiple requests from quilters on their own social media. What happened is that an exhibition curated by SAQA was supposed to be shown at AQS shows, but AQS was not willing to show 2 (of the 39) quilts. You can look up the reason why, but I am not so sure that reason is even relevant. AQS censored an exhibition that it had committed to show and now only wanted to display those quilts that it liked (AQS had seen images of all the quilts with all the statements of the makers before signing the contract!).
An exhibition is a group of quilts that makes a unit. The total of the quilts makes the exhibition. This is not about you or me entering a quilt that a show organiser can reject for any reason and without explanation, which is fully the right of the show organisation. With an exhibition there is no pick or choose and the contract didn't provide that exceptional option either. AQS could have said that it didn't want this SAQA exhibition, but it didn't: the contract for a complete exhibition was signed, to be shown at all five ASQ shows.
If you have been to any quilt show, you must have seen quilts that you don't care for. Political quilts, gun violence quilts, religious quilts, trauma quilts, traditional quilts, super modern quilts, boring quilts, children's quilts, animal quilts, anything really. There is always something a viewer doesn't care for. What doesn't appeal to one, touches another. When you don't care for a quilt, you walk on to the next one. Why waste time? There is plenty more to see! If a show has hundreds of quilts, it is impossible to love them all! Agreement with the show acceptance is never a requirement. Even the best of show quilt or the people's choice award quilt is not unanimous. Nobody, nobody is expecting a show organiser to "agree" with every quilt.
After careful consideration, SAQA refused to be censored and decided to pull their entire exhibition "Color in context: Red" from all AQS shows. This exhibition by the way, has been travelling around already. I saw it in Houston last October and I didn't hear anyone scream because 2 quilts were so upsetting. Nobody fainted either.
As a SAQA member, I applaud SAQA for doing this as there otherwise would never again be a SAQA exhibition. The integrity of the arts, the freedom of artists, is at stake. The freedom to express with fabrics what we want to express. To me it is a matter of respect for the quilt maker, for SAQA and quite frankly also a matter of respect for the show attendants, who can very well make up for themselves what they like or not. There is no need to pull anything out. It is a quilt show, you show quilts! We are grownups. And without reading the statements, those quilts are nothing shocking to anyone. There are so many statements that are not according to how I see things. Fine! I can respect someone else's opinion. Especially in quilting. That is our American tradition! Kids can see these quilts without any problem.
You can look up all the discussions going on and you may wonder why I am bringing it up in a blog. Well, it had/has a direct impact on me and put me on the spot.
