Alabama Visual Arts Network, Black Belt Treasures Cultural Arts Center, Wilcox ArtWorks, and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts presented the inaugural Alabama Fiber Art Conference in Camden in August 24-27, 2023. We hope to plan another conference in 2025
Wilcox ArtWorks hosted Mary Virginia Pettway from Alabama and Melissa Vandenberg from Kentucky in the two-woman exhibition Threading the Needle at The Gallery in Camden, Alabama from August 24 through September 23, 2023 (please click here or contact Black Belt Treasures for gallery hours). There was an opening reception on Thursday, August 24th from 5:30-7:30pm and a panel discussion featuring Melissa Vandenberg in conversation with Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts curator Jennifer Jankauskas on Saturday, August 26th at 5pm. The exhibition, reception, an panel discussion were all free and open to the public.
The Gallery - 103 Broad Street, Camden, Alabama 36726
Black Belt Treasures Cultural Arts Center hosted workshops with Melissa Vandenberg on Saturday, August 26th from 10am-3pm (included a one-hour break for lunch) and with Mary Virginia Pettway on Sunday, August 27th from 1pm-5pm in their studio space.
Black Belt Treasures - 209 Claiborne Street, Camden, Alabama 36726
Mary Virginia Pettway, is a quilt maker who was born and raised in Gee’s Bend Alabama which is in a bend in the river in a small rural place with many bends in the roads. These bends have molded who she is. The history of Gees Bend from slavery until now has molded a people who had to use their creativity for survival as well as for creating something that gave and is still giving joy to make, the quilts. Through these struggles, quilt making could put a smile on faces when there was not very much to smile about, the beauty of creating a quilt, the colors, the designs and most of all the women in the community coming together as one on their journey. When she makes a quilt, she sees each piece as a brushstroke on canvas, piecing together an imaginary portray, landscape and the history of this journey.
Mary Virgina sees herself as a piece of the beautiful quilt creative from the endurance of the Gees Bend quilters' family, the great-granddaughter of Lucy Mooney, granddaughter of Catherine Pettway, and the daughter of Marie Pettway. She was taught to quilt by her mother who was a strong and hard-working woman. One of her first memories of the quilt was the sound, when sitting under or sitting at a quilt that is being quilted you hear each stitch being pull through the three layers. This sound is what she most remembers about quilting with her mother, each stitch she pulled through represented her endurance.
Mary Virginia Pettway’s work has been featured in publications including ‘Visions of the Blackbelt’ and in ‘The Black Belt Artist Project.’
Born and educated in Detroit, Melissa is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and curator living in Eastern Kentucky. Her work surveys a devolving socio-political landscape using myths surrounding patriotism, pride, and partisanship as points of departure. Narrowing world views and false perceptions of a "homeland" prompts creative projects that respond to bodies, prejudice, violence, and unrest. The physical works employ commonplace media—matches, fabric, handkerchiefs, flags, hangers, vases, and other familiar and domicile materials. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States, and abroad in Canada, Germany, Luxembourg, Iceland, and Sweden. Melissa received a BFA in 1999 from Center for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan and a MFA in 2005 from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She has been the recipient of numerous grants including a Kentucky Foundation for Women Artist Enrichment Grant, the Al Smith Fellowship, Great Meadows Foundation Travel Grant, and was shortlisted for the Luxembourg Art Prize in 2016. Her work is in the collections of the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama, Gummifabriken in Värnamo, Sweden, 21c Museum in Louisville, KY, and the Rockwell Museum in Corning, NY. Melissa is an Associate Professor of Art at Eastern Kentucky University and Director of the EKU Giles Gallery.
Melissa Vandenberg is represented by Maus Contemporary in Birmingham, AL.
Photo Credit /// Erica Chambers Photography
