Convening Responses
Lucy T. Pettway (American, 1921–2004), Birds in the Air (detail), 1981, cotton and cotton-polyester blend, 79 × 79 inches, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, museum purchase and gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation from the William S. Arnett Collection, 2017.70. © Lucy T. Pettway.
From May 4 to May 5, 2023, the High Museum of Art hosted a thirty-six-hour convening that brought fifteen quilt artists, academics, curators, and other quilt thought leaders together, including local colleagues from Spelman and Atlanta’s active quilting community and individuals traveling from as far as California. The event kicked off with a public conversation panel followed by a day-long closed-door convening, which unfolded in a series of facilitated discussions ending with the central question of the Patterns in Abstraction exhibition: “How can quilts made by Black women change the way we tell the history of abstract art?” In the months following, convening participants were invited to contribute short written responses that are published here and are also excerpted in the didactics for the exhibition.
