Fredonia’s Diversity Quilt, incorporating 126 individual blocks created by students, faculty and staff, will be the center of attention at a celebration on Thursday, April 20, 4 p.m. in the Reed Library exhibit area.
The quilt was envisioned by the Professional Development Center as a project to enrich the campus community by exploring different cultures and ethnicities, while promoting conversation and imparting knowledge among campus constituencies.
“A diversity quilt is a quilt where you have the participants design a quilt block that describes something about themselves,” explained Sandra Lewis, project manager in the Professional Development Center. “Some people drew flags to represent their patriotism; some people drew or designed anything that sort of represents who they feel they are, anything that represents their culture.” Others sought to convey love, philosophical values or passions.
Ethnicities, cultures and countries represented in the quilt include: Latino, Native American, African-American, Polish, German, Kenyan, Korean, Chinese, Italian, Bulgarian, Hawaiian, Panama, animal lovers, LGBTQ, Cameroon, religious, Scotland, Ireland, Japan, French, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Russia, Switzerland, Palestine, Syrian, Jewish, English and Lebanese.
The quilt is roughly 13-by-5 feet in size. Nearly 60 percent (76) of the blocks were created by students. Staff members made 34 blocks, and faculty added 10 blocks.
The assembly process involved edging around each block to set it apart, sewing the rows together and then tying the different layers of the quilt together. “The very last process was putting on the binding, where we trimmed it all and put on the Fredonia blue,” Lewis said.
“It shows how diverse the campus is. You learn bits and pieces about who’s around you, who you’re working with and you say, ‘I didn’t know you were like that,’ or ‘I didn’t know you treasured that.’ It shows how alike we are, and that’s a beautiful part. It touched my heart to have someone share something that touched their heart.”
Creation of a quilt is a metaphor for one unified Fredonia community, noted Lewis, who began contemplating a campus diversity quilt more than 15 years ago. As individual families are diverse and unique when looked at in isolation, all constituencies contribute to the campus community when woven together, she explained.
“All are welcome to attend and view the quilt as well as share in the meaning behind their block creation if they submitted one for this year's quilt,” Lewis said. The quilt will be hung near the library’s international flag display.
Quilt partners included the Carnahan-Jackson Learning Center, Residence Life, Office of International Education and Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Funding was provided by the Carnahan Jackson Humanities Fund.
