MICA's Center for Art Education presented A Pathway to Awareness: Quilting for Social Justice, an exhibition that includes the handiwork of more than 100 artists from the Baltimore area, exploring social issues relevant to the artists' lives expressed through the art of quilting. A Pathway to Awareness was on view Tuesday, April 13- Monday, April 19, 2010 in the Meyerhoff Gallery (Fox Building, 1303 W. Mount Royal Ave).
A Pathway to Awareness: Quilting for Social Justice represented the cumulative experience of the course Quilting for Social Justice. The course covered a thematic investigation of social (in)justice and adopted quilting as a medium, community as the context, and an exhibition as part of the process. MICA students Alexandra Arocho, Amy Buckler, Marci Caballero-Reynolds, Kirsten Kalman, Jamie Kimak and Karl Miller were led by Dr. Joan M. E. Gaither. The course was co-facilitated by Curator-in-Residence George Ciscle, MICA staff member Katie Faulstich, and M.A. in Teaching student Kelly Schmal. Students investigated social issues that confront humanity and chose to adopt the theme of Awareness as the guiding principle of the exhibition.
MICA and Towson University students, as well as children, high school students, adults from local schools, and community organizations, created the quilts. Each artist was asked to consider a story of their own, or the story of someone they know, and to express this story through the medium of quilting. The artists' goal was to raise the awareness of the issue at hand and to ask the question, "What can I do?" Each quilt square expressed a unique perception of social (in)justice with themes that included: equality, local and global censorship, neighborhoods and communities, diversity, education, identity, and popular culture. This work exhibited together created a pathway to awareness.
A Pathway to Awareness: Quilting for Social Justice was made possible with support from MICA's Office of Research and the generous contributors to the Friends of Art Education Fund.