WS Chronicle

Image above courtesy of Delta Arts

Special to The Chronicle

Delta Arts Center, 2611 New Walkertown Rd., will present the fifth in its biennial exhibition of quilts with the Tuesday, Feb. 3 opening of “Samplers and Symmetry V: Pieces by Area African American Quilters.” The exhibition will be on view through Saturday, April 25. The opening reception is Thursday, February 5 at 6 p.m.

Begun originally as a “fill in” exhibit, Samplers and Symmetry has grown to hold a major spot in Delta Arts Center’s exhibition planning.

Quilters from many areas of the triad eagerly respond to the invitation to show their creations and Delta Arts Center welcomes the opportunity to enlighten and educate the community to this rapidly growing art form. Though still a practical craft resulting in much desired items of warmth, quilting has grown to become an art form that can be enjoyed by those with minimal sewing ability to those with advanced skills, employing computerized sewing machines and specialized cutting devices to save time and energy and hurry the quilter to the fun part-piecing the quilt.

Former exhibitors have been invited again this year and through social media we hope to find other quilters whose work can be shown for the first time. For those wishing to learn quilting, Clementine Mauney, exhibitor and a former Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools family and consumer science instructor, will teach classes at Delta Arts.

To further show the uniqueness and versatility of quilting and share one woman’s use of quilts to tell a story, Delta Arts Center will present Dr. Anne Parson, assistant professor of history at UNCG, and students in the school’s Museum Studies program in a presentation about the quilts of Gwendolyn A. Magee, a High Point native who died in 2011.

In September 2014, UNCG presented “Lift Every Voice and Sing: The Quilts of Gwendolyn Ann Magee,” a stunning exhibit that depicted her “unique perspective on race and the Black Experience.” Twelve works exhibited were based on the text of James Weldon Johnson’s song of the same name.

Dr. Parson and the students will discuss Magee’s life and the themes of her quilts and share images and information associated with their research. “Lift Every Voice” closed in early November, but six of Magee’s quilts can be seen at the High Point Museum in the partner exhibit “Pieces of the Past: The Art of Gwendolyn Magee,” on view until Feb. 21.

Learn more at deltaartscenter.org.