Maclay Visual Arts Participates in The Big Bend Quilt Trail with Gadsden Art Center and Museum along with Goodwood Museum and Gardens

Have you ever been to the Gadsden Museum in Quincy? Are you wondering how Maclay developed a relationship with them? Easy. We went on an art teacher field trip in the summer. We struck up a friendship with a common theme... teaching kids all about art and the rest is history.

Let me unpack this for you all. For several years the museum has been invited to our Celebration of the Arts. What is the Celebration of the Arts? See  the links below.

https://2soulsisters.blogspot.com/2018/11/celebrate-arts-fcis-presentation-by.html

https://2soulsisters.blogspot.com/2019/04/celebration-of-arts-and-gadsden-art.html

We decided to take a field trip last year with kids to learn about Norman Rockwell.

https://2soulsisters.blogspot.com/2019/02/pritnmaking-on-our-field-trip-to.html

Well, crazy enough a little later in the year we get an email from Grace about participating in The Big Bend Quilt Trail. 

We followed the detailed directions sent to us by Gadsden Museum.

Spoke with Goodwood Museum and Gardens. they were super sweet and allowed us to display on their grounds. 

When we walked up and saw this QUILT - it was an amazing thing to see 

Look at those colors!

Cathy and I are adding the final laminated details to the piece.

 For more information on The Big Bend Quilt Trail see the link below:

https://quilts.gadsdenarts.org/

This project was very well planned and thought out by Gadsden Museum! We are waiting to hear what else they send our way for us to participate in as we have grown so much by sharing this partnership!

Check out more details with some of the screenshots of specific information on the project.

A Community Art Project

The Big Bend Quilt Trail is a public art project initiated and orchestrated by the Gadsden Arts Center & Museum in 2019 to install large wooden quilt block murals throughout Gadsden and Leon counties. Designed and created by various local businesses, museums, and individuals, each mural will be its own unique installation. Gadsden Arts extends a heartfelt thank you to all of our Big Bend Quilt Trail partners for their enthusiastic collaboration that made the project possible!

This site provides an online interactive map of the quilt block murals for visitors to scout and travel to the numerous mural sites. View the map below and click on the locations to view a quick look. Click on the "Info and; Directions" button to learn more about the quilt block and how to get there.

The Maclay School COTA Class (Community Outreach Through The Arts) decided to take the lead and get involved with this community project.  The other Visual Arts Teachers and classes were available for consult and details.

Crazy

Artist: Maclay Visual Arts Department, Maclay School (Kim Daniel, Cathy Hicks, Kyle Maurey, Kaitlyn Dressel)

Sponsor: Maclay Visual Arts Department, Maclay School

Exact location: Goodwood Museum & Gardens

Quilt Pattern: Crazy
Description: When researching for potential quilt patterns for this project, we were intrinsically drawn to the Crazy quilt pattern. It historically has an evolving free form styled design. Crazy Quilting takes its name from pottery, where "crazed" glazing occurs on a fired piece of pottery as it is scattered randomly over the pot's surface. This is something that art teachers are very familiar with when teaching students about the different methods of firing pottery. We chose this color scheme as it uniquely ties to our Maclay Marauder Moment, #truebluemaclay. At Maclay School, it essentially means one who takes pride in, an upholds, the traditions of being a Maclay Marauder student. We also believe the different colors represent the individuality of each of our Visual Art students. When taking on this project, we were excited to share a little bit of Maclay with our community. If you would like to learn more, we have an active social media on Instagram and Twitter, @MaclayFineArts. Come join us and see how we offer many diverse opportunities for creative development and expression of our student talent.

Address (click for directions): 1600 Miccosukee Road, Tallahassee, FL 32308

Are you thinking ....how did this project get started??? See the original email below:

Hello Everyone!

We are finally on our countdown to launching the Big Bend Quilt Trail, a public art project stretching from Chattahoochee to Tallahassee, and hope you will be a part of it! 

To recap, the Big Bend Quilt Trail is an interpretive trail of quilt block design murals displayed in public places. They are simply made of plywood, 4' x 4' (half sheet) or 8' x 8' (2 sheets) and house paint. They are easy to do, fun to paint, a great group project, and look great! You will find detailed information attached about the Quilt Trail and how to produce your mural. Note, quilt block designs included in the packet are taken from quilts produced in our region.

Gadsden Arts is facilitating this as a collaborative, regional public art project. It is educational, will drive tourism, and celebrates this beloved art form in our region. For us, it will also promote our "Southern Quilting from 1830s to Today" exhibition that opens in September. For EVERY PARTNER, the neat thing about this project is that each can use this as a tie-in to your own quilt themed projects - and many partners are making plans to do that.

Each quilt block mural can be installed outdoors or indoors, as long as it is accessible to the public. Each will be listed on our online Big Bend Quilt Trail page, which will present each mural with interpretive information about the mural sponsor and your design and a Google Map link to locate it.

To participate, you will simply design and paint your mural, install it, and send a picture of the mural with required information to Angie Barry at Angie.barry@gadsdenarts.org. Please plan to keep your quilt mural up through December 31, 2019, and notify us if you take it down. We hope to do an annual inventory of quilt themed murals so that this project can have a long-term presence.

Promotion: We also ask ALL PARTNERS to PROMOTE the Big Bend Quilt Trail through all of your marketing channels. We will send the online link to the online page, along with quiltmural photographs, once the page is produced. Visit Tallahassee also expressed interest in promoting this - I will follow up with Kerri. All materials will be web-based (for use on smart phones, tablets, computers, etc.) - marketing via social media, your own websites, email newsletters, etc. will be very effective. We will not have print pieces, other than newspaper articles.

IMPORTANT! QUILT TRAIL TIMELINE

ASAP: As soon as you decide to participate, email Angie.barry@gadsdenarts.org simply letting her know you intend to be a part of this project.

July 15 - Complete your quilt block mural.

July 31 - deadline to send complete mural information and picture to Angie.barry@gadsdenarts.org

August - pre-opening promotion of the Quilt Trail (coming soon!) by all partners

September 2 (Labor Day) - Launch Day online!

Ongoing - promotion of the quilt trail, partners’ quilt themed projects

December 31 - earliest date to take murals down - we hope most will remain up in the very long term.

Participation Incentive: we would like to offer an incentive for the public to tour and view as many of these as possible - once we know how many quilt trail murals we will have, I will reach out with ideas (i.e. send your selfie on the Big Bend Quilt Trail and earn 2:1 admission; or send selfies with 10 quilt murals and earn a GACM mug - all ideas welcome!)

Long Term: we hope the Big Bend Quilt Trail will be a long-term asset that can be maintained and expanded, for all participants’ benefit and use with your own projects. Maintenance would include an annual inventory of existing quilt trail murals, and an annual effort to distribute information to attract new participants. Please share this email and the attached packet at will.

Questions? Call Angie Barry, Curator 850.627.5021

We look forward to seeing everyone's quilt trail murals!!

Kindest Regards,

Grace

These were the attachments in the email:

Check out COCA for more details: 

https://www.tallahasseearts.org/event/big-bend-quilt-trail/?fbclid=IwAR2g_WIfg94XR-wDTavi0Dk9HNUVSvWkhHAHLC_VB0sY_yiTLY518LaSTHQ

Grace Robinson: An introduction to the Southern Quilting Project, featuring the From the Cedar Chest: Southern Quilting 1830s to Today exhibition, and the Big Bend Quilt Trail, a public mural project, both celebrating two centuries of the art and tradition of quilting in our region.

Thanks to all who helped us along the way with this project. It truly was a #allhandsin kind of collaborative project. Thanks again, Grace! We sure do appreciate you.

Y'all know we always choose a song to go along with our post. I don't know why. It is just how we roll. We like art. We like music. I was drawn to this one. I guess it is that good ole' UGA artsy vibe. I do believe Athens, GA is one of the best college towns around. REM always had that Hippie Towny Vibe. Their videos and album covers were groovey. Take a listen.

I can see me laying on a quilt at an outside concert  listening to this band play all night!

The Art Teacher and the Snow Cone Shed that Became a Dog House or Dog Cave?

Art 🎨teachers will so get this.  When you are an art 🎨teacher, you can pretty much make anything cool.  I mean, can we put lipstick 💄on a pig🐷 or what?  Well, my husband had huge faith in his art teacher wifey's abilities.

Here is how the story went down.

Storytime!  Storytime!  Storytime!  📙📘📗📕

My hubs says after church⛪ one Sunday, "Do you want to go look at a doghouse that I found for Barley and Blue?"  I was all about a road trip after church⛪.  We drove about 10 miles to Fort Valley and rode around this lot with prefab sheds and such.  We drove up to this:

I thought, well it is cute, but it has to be repainted.  Now, keep in mind I had been painting murals at school all summer.  My painting arm was tired.  As I walk around the shed I see this:

Oh. My. Word.  My hubs want to turn a Snow Cone Shed into a doghouse.  I thought to myself, can't we just buy a normal doghouse like most folks.  I mean, not only is it a Snow Cone Shed, it is a dang mansion of a doghouse.  Lord Have Mercy.

What happened next?  Well, below↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓ you see a picture of what I find in my yard one afternoon. Yup.  I live in a nice, quiet neighborhood where there really is no outside traffic, but LOTS of KIDS.  Now, I have a dang Snow Cone Shed in my yard.  All the neighborhood kids are going to be lined up asking for strawberry and grape snow cones from Paiyton's Place and J-Scott's Spot Shed.

You may think I am lying.  L👀K!  I tell you.  THIS IS MY BACKYARD.  There are my green trees.  There is my pinestraw and my sky that I share with everybody.  My yard, I tell ya.

Quickly, I get the paint out because I do not have time to be making snow cones.  School is starting and I am BUSY!  Well, now I am busy painting a Snow Cone Shed that will be Barley and Blue's Dog Cave.

Finally, I got the Dog Cave looking more like a doghouse.  Well, not really cause a doghouse looks like this↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓:

Or if super nice, like this↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓:

NOT THIS↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓!

Of course, my hubs decided to order special doors from Amazon that open up into the pen or into the yard.  Barley is digging his Dog Cave↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓.

Blue is digging his Dog Cave, too.  He loves his buddy, Barley.

Honestly, this story is pretty much how we roll.  Just find potential in whatever and make good stuff happen.  

Hey, I got a blog post out of it.  You may have gotten at least one giggle.  Maybe some of you could even relate to this and realized that you were not the only kooky people in the world.

I really want this Blue Roan English Cocker Spaniel that is a girl.

L👀K, isn't she precious?

It is weird to tell ya this, but I want to name her Bertha and call her Bertie.  

I have been talking about Bertie for 2 years.  

I have done Bertie art.

I have posted Bertie on Facebook and everybody thought I got a new dog.

I think anytime there is a special holiday that Bertie is going to show up.

Still, no Bertie.

You may say, why don't you just get a Bertie?

Well, my hubs thinks that his dog (Barley) and my son's dog (Blue) are enough.

😞

One day, me and Bertie going to be hanging at the Dog Cave eating dog treats and snow cones.

I love this song.  I loved it as a child.  I still love it now.

It is about a dog named Boo, not Bertie.

1965

7th Grade Goes Bananas!

We went a little bananas🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌 with plaster wrap.  

Directions:

The kids shaped the bananas🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌with newspaper and masking tape.

Oh boy, some of these bananas🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌 were very heavy!  

The kids plaster wrapped.

The kids painted.

Easy project and kind of fun and funny!

L👀k!

Every had banana pancakes?  They are so good.  Just cook the pancakes normal, but add a few banana slices as the batter starts to cook.  Almost as good as Jack Johnson's song "Banana Pancakes".

1965

#ALLHANDSIN - A One School Effort (Hurricane Relief, Bahamas)

Many folks might ask #whymaclay  - Well, this is one good reason here. When there is a need it is a one school effort for there to be #ALLHANDSIN 

This was in our eNews Letter:Maclay  will continue to collect items for the Hurricane relief through Wednesday at noon. Please drop off donations in the Webster Foyer.  Items to donate: baby supplies (food, diapers, formula, wipes), non-perishable food,  batteries, flashlights, work gloves (not leather), hand sanitizer, and toiletries (travel size.)  Please consider picking up some of these items this week so we can help those in need.

Thank you Mrs. Sims in our Maclay Lower School for this great idea for a bulletin board that encompassed our hashtag for the year #allhandsin I must say as I walked down the hallway this 5th grade bulletin board really resonated with me. Hands in education at its best. I mean, "wow". What a great way to discuss and unpack many issues surrounding the hurricane.

We appreciate you allowing us to post and share with our art friendly followers!

Way to go Maclay for posting this on our social media platforms.

I just happened upon this song and thought it fit right along with the blog.
Take a listen....