Joseph Farris Gallery at CNMA
The Joseph Farris Gallery exhibits work by emerging and established artists from Connecticut and the metro New York area.
Have an idea for an exhibition? Contact Catherine!
Current Exhibition -- Women's Voices
Press Release
Women's Voices: a Quilt Exhibit Celebrating the Old and New in Women's Arts
in collaboration with Homestead Quilts
March 20th – April 1st, 2010
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 20th, 2-4 PM
BETHEL, CT - In March of 2009, a group of women gathered at Homestead Quilts of Bethel for a sewing class where participants would create a quilt based loosely on the stories of escaping slaves who had used the Underground Railroad as their path to freedom. Because quilt shop owner Vivian Hultgren carries a line of reproduction fabrics, sewers were able to incorporate into their designs such fabrics as "Lincoln's White House," "Harper's Ferry," "Harriet Beecher Stowe House," and others. The women who ultimately completed their quilts had such a rich time together that they continued meeting Wednesday nights, twice per month, going on to create quilts based on farm fields and women's Civil War experiences.
Nancy Weston, a member of this quilting group, proposed the display of the quilts to the Center for New Media and the Arts as a fitting event for Black History month and Women's History month. Making quilts has long been a way that women express themselves, since the needle-arts were one of the few avenues of artistic expression easily accessible to women. Quilting grew out of necessity in colonial and pioneer times as a way to create nighttime warmth by using scraps from flour sacks, worn-out clothes, and small bits of fabric leftover from handmade clothes. Contemporary women have thousands of pre-made fabrics from which to choose, rotary cutters that make short work of piecing, precisely outlined instruction booklets, and technological advances such as digital sewing machines that create dozens of stitch patterns.
The current blend of old and new techniques in the quilting world creates a natural fit for Homestead Quilts to team up with CNMA, across the tracks of the old Bethel railroad station, to share with the public this fabric art medium.
Public Events
Opening Reception March 20th, 2010, 2-4 PM
Our creative director and many of the quilters will be present to take questions about the history of quilting and the symbolism behind the quilts in this exhibition. Wine and refreshments will be served.
History of the Joseph Farris Gallery
In August 2009, the Gallery at the Center for New Media and the Arts was named in honor of Joseph Farris, a successful cartoonist from Bethel and friend of the Center. The Center for New Media and the Arts has a permanent collection of original cartoons by Joseph Farris, many of which were published in New Yorker magazine.