Building Bridges Through Storytelling: A Community Quilt Exhibit At The Westport Library

News release from The Westport Library:

WESTPORT, CT — This winter, The Westport Library is featuring Building Bridges Through Storytelling, a multi-gallery quilting exhibition currently spanning the Library’s Sheffer, South, and Jesup Galleries now through March 17, 2026. Like a patchwork quilt itself, the show weaves together three distinct yet interconnected exhibits — each exploring how art, memory, and narrative bind communities across generations and geographies.

In the Sheffer Gallery, the Southern Connecticut Modern Quilt Guild (SCTMQG) presents original quilts inspired by the exhibition’s theme. Building Bridges Through Storytelling highlights quilting as both a creative practice and a powerful storytelling medium. These works reflect shared experiences with a modern sensibility, from the pandemic to everyday acts of resilience.

A reception and artist talk for the exhibit will be held Thursday, January 15, from 6 to 8 pm. The reception kicks off at 6 pm, followed by an artist talk at 7 pm with Westport artist Miggs Burroughs and a panel of quilters featured in the exhibit.

Founded more than a decade ago, SCTMQG is dedicated to advancing modern quilting through art, education, and community engagement. The Guild also supports regional nonprofits, creating and donating quilts and pillowcases to organizations including Homes with Hope, Susie’s House, Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, and others.

The Guild’s first connection with author, educator, and quilting expert Tangular Irby laid the foundation for the interwoven saga of this three-part exhibition. At a SCTMQG meeting in 2023, Irby shared her family’s quilting traditions rooted in Gee’s Bend, Alabama, which migrated north as members of the Gee’s Bend community settled in Bridgeport, carrying their craft with them.

“While our footprints may fade, our stories can live on,” Irby said of her work in sharing and celebrating her quilting heritage.

This exchange between Irby and SCTMQG sparked a beautiful collaboration honoring the enduring journey of Gee’s Bend quilting across generations and geography. The resulting exhibit, A Traveling Legacy: From Gee’s Bend to the Nutmeg State, is now on display in the South Gallery. It showcases quilts crafted by Gee’s Bend descendants now residing in Connecticut.

This textile anthology traces the enduring legacy of Dinah Miller, one of the first documented Gee’s Bend quilters who was captured and brought to America from Benin, Africa. Her lasting impact lives in the patterned similarities these quilts share with traditional Benin weaving, preserving a storied history branching from Africa to Alabama to Bridgeport.

A reception and community talk with Irby and her fellow Gee’s Bend descendants, Eula Pettway and Sandra Juliet Pettway, will take place on Saturday, January 31, from 1 to 3 pm. A quilt sale will also take place from 12 to 5 pm that same day, offering a chance for Westport’s vibrant art community to participate in the interconnected narrative.

Described by the New York Times as “some of the most miraculous works of modern art America has produced,” Gee’s Bend quilts are celebrated worldwide and held in major museum collections. Known for their bold, abstract designs and vivid cultural expression, these quilts tell stories of faith, strength, and creativity that span generations. Their patterns and piecing styles have been enduringly passed down, surviving slavery and Jim Crow. They are a testament to the power of storytelling, expanding the realm of Black visual culture and opening doors to new understandings of American art and history.

While the respective work of SCTMQG and the Gee’s Bend quilters is showcased individually in the other galleries, their artistry comes together in the final piece in this exhibition. Uniting both exhibits is the Jesup Gallery’s centerpiece quilt, Building Bridges, collaboratively created by members of SCTMQG, the Bridgeport Gee’s Bend community, and quilters from Gee’s Bend, Alabama. Each community offers their own stories stitched into every seam.

Excitingly, the collaborative quilt will enter a new chapter when it finds a home in The Westport Library’s permanent art collection. This honored exchange will take place before the Building Bridges artist talk at 7 pm on Thursday, January 15.

Through striking designs and thoughtfully layered textiles, Building Bridges Through Storytelling invites viewers to reflect on how art preserves heritage and creates new narratives. Woven throughout this exhibition are stories of life, love, resilience, and community — a powerful reminder that storytelling, like quilting itself, continues to build bridges of understanding across generations.

For more information about the exhibition and related programs, visit the Art at the Library page.

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Artist Reception: ‘Building Bridges Through Storytelling': Original Quilts From the Southern CT Modern Quilt Guild & Gifting of Community Quilt

Thursday, January 15

6-8 pm

The Westport Library

https://westportlibrary.org/event/artist-reception-building-bridges-through-storytelling-original-quilts-from-the-southern-ct-modern-quilt-guild/

Artist Reception: A Traveling Legacy: From Gee’s Bend to the Nutmeg State

Saturday, January 31

Artist reception and talk: 1-3 pm

Quilt sale: 12-5 pm

The Westport Library

https://westportlibrary.org/event/artist-reception-quilt-sale-a-traveling-legacy-from-gees-bend-to-the-nutmeg-state/