Learn Together
Children who are exposed to art and history learn to respect their community and feel a responsibility to help take care of it.
Materials
- Colored paper (4 sheets)
- Glue stick
- Tape
- Scissors
Make Together
In the 1800’s, enslaved black women from the town of Gee’s Bend, Alabama started creating quilts from scrap fabric out of a necessity for warmth. The distinctive technique, which used geometric and abstract patterns, was passed down over generations. During the Civil Rights Movement in 1966, a cooperative called Freedom Quilting Bee was founded by and for black women to gain recognition and economic independence.
Lucy Mingo made this spectacular pieced quilt in 1979. It includes a nine-patch center block surrounded by pieced strips. Photo CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia by Billvolckening. Click for full image.
Each quilt represents a period of the woman’s life, some joyous moments and some horrific from institutionalized racism. Over generations, these quilts become symbols of change for African Americans, carrying forward a legacy of hope and resilience.
Today, these magnificent quilts have been exhibited in museums throughout the U.S.
As a family, talk about how you can lend your voice to this artistic form and create an abstract, visual conversation about what change you would like to see in the world. Use past experiences and your imagination to create a new story full of transformative change.
- Cut all four pieces of paper in half.
- Place four of the half sheets of paper in a two by two grid of your color placement choosing.
- Tape the back of the grid together.
- Take your four remaining pieces of paper and begin to cut them into strips, squares, rectangles, and triangles. Remember, use all scraps of paper! Nothing goes to waste.
- Glue or tape your cut up shapes in any arrangement on your background colored paper. You can layer the scraps of paper, if desired.
- If all your cut up paper is used up, you have completed the project!
Hang your patchwork creations around your home as a way to always remember that your artistic voice and your stories can establish a beautiful future. Black people have historically been, and continue to be, underrepresented in the arts. Enjoy this list of illustrated children’s books compiled by The Conscious Kid to explore more art and stories.