Date: June 1, 2017
Contact: Penny Wagner, 360-565-3005
A nationally-touring art quilt exhibit “Piecing Together a Changing Planet” is now open for its last stop at the Sequim Civic Center and the only stop of the tour in the Pacific Northwest. The juried show features twenty-six art quilts interpreting climate change and highlighting a few of the many ways that America’s 417 national parks are being impacted by water pollution, air pollution and other human-caused phenomena.
During a reception for the grand opening of the exhibition, Olympic National Park scientists will present park research surrounding glaciers and ocean acidification at Sequim’s First Friday Art Walk. The City of Sequim and the City Arts Advisory Commission Reception for the exhibition opens at 5:00 p.m. on June 2nd at the Sequim Civic Center at 152 W. Cedar Street. At 5:15 p.m. Bill Baccus, Olympic National Park Physical Scientist, will speak about recent glacier research in Olympic National Park including repeat photography that is tracking how glaciers are responding to a changing climate. At 6:15 p.m. Steve Fradkin, Olympic National Park Coastal Ecologist, will speak about the park's efforts to monitor changing ocean pH levels and discuss the effects of an increasingly acidic ocean.
The display began touring the country in December 2014. The artworks were all created by members of Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA), a 3000-member national organization dedicated to promoting the art quilt through education, exhibitions, professional development, documentation, and publications. Far from utilitarian quilts traditionally used as bedcoverings, art quilts focus on aspects not only of stitching and piecing, but also of layering, “thread-painting“ and graphic design.
“Stories of how artists have played a crucial role in environmental protection are legion,” said Gary Bremen, a park ranger from Biscayne National Park who helped coordinate the exhibit. “The arts convey beauty, fragility and urgency in ways that touch the heart and soul, thus opening the mind as well.” Maya Schonenberger, the exhibit curator said, “the artists’ goal is to help open people’s eyes to the beauty of nature that surrounds them, and share their concern for its loss.”
The exhibit will be on display through June 30 and is open to the public at the Sequim Civic Center on weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The exhibit is sponsored by Sequim’s City Arts Advisory Commission (CAAC) in partnership with Olympic National Park.
The national tour of “Piecing Together a Changing Planet” was made possible by SAQA and Biscayne National Park, with financial support from the National Park Service’s Climate Change Response Program, the South Florida National Parks Trust, Les Bouquinistes Book Club and an anonymous donor.
For more details about the exhibit, visit www.nationalparkartexhibit.com.
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About the National Park Service.
More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America’s 417 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Learn more at www.nps.gov.
