Chatham gallery creating art 'quilt' for Black History Month
Gallery is seeking art submissions 'celebrating Black lives'
An arts organization in Chatham-Kent is looking for contributions for a unique community project to mark Black History Month.
The theme of the project is "celebrating Black lives" and the Thames Art Gallery and ARTspace are seeking submissions from the public for original works of art on the theme. The art can be any media, including painting, drawing and writing.
The public submissions will be combined and set up in a pandemic-friendly public display.
"What we're having people do is produce a piece of work and then photograph it and then send it to us and we will print it out and then assemble it in the form of a quilt," Phil Vanderwall, curator of the Thames Art Gallery, said on CBC Radio's Windsor Morning on Friday.
The completed work will be displayed in the window of the ARTspace gallery on King Street in downtown Chatham.
"So it's a nice public space," he said.
The 'quilt' format of the project allows for community participation while preventing close contact. Both ARTspace and the Thames Art Gallery are closed due to COVID-19.
Vanderwall said quilt-making is currently undergoing a bit of a revival.
"This seemed like a good opportunity to explore that," he said.
Submissions are already coming in and the deadline is Jan. 29 at 5:30 p.m.
The quilt will be unveiled Feb. 5 and will remain on display until Feb 26.