Three voices from the local quilting community will speak about select objects in the Shelburne collection, offering insight and personal reflections, and demonstrating how historic quilts have the ability to inspire, engage, and delight contemporary quilters.
This event is free with exhibition admission: free for members, $5
general public adults. Space is limited to 50. Tickets will be
issued on a first come, first served basis.
Shirley Neary
Iowa-born Shirley Neary has always seen herself as an artist, living each day as creatively as possible. She has always viewed quilts as art pieces, even the traditional ones. A lifetime interest in art and art history led her to return to school in 1992 and earn a BA in studio art from the University of Nebraska Omaha with an emphasis on drawing. Neary made her first quilt soon after. It was the beginning of a 20-year passion of creating and exhibiting art quilts. She was honored in 2004 with the Nebraska Art Council’s Individual Artist Fellowship for her “Small Town Iowa Stories;Growing Up in the ‘60’s” series.
Due to illness, Lola Jenkins is unable to participate in this evening's event. Joining us instead is quilt enthusiast Teri Quinn.
Teri Quinn
Teri does not remember a time when she did not know how to sew. Her grandmother and mother both sewed and she simply assumed everyone did. When she ran out of things to sew, Teri began quilting.
Teri belongs to a small group of friends they call The Comfortmakers—a 25-year comraderie that started in a grade school parking lot when she and the other mothers exchanged quilting ideas while waiting to pick up kids.
Teri co-curated the exhibitions Women of Biblical Proportions and its companion, Men of Biblical Proportions at Omaha's Cathedral Cultural Center's Sunderland Gallery. A few years later, she curated the quilt show that was part of the annual Cathedral Flower Festival, as well as the popular quilt exhibition at the Sunderland Gallery, Sacred Threads.
Today Teri belongs to several organizations, including the Cottonwood and Omaha Quilt Guilds, where she has held various board positions. She travels to Houston, Texas every few years for the International Quilt festival and to connect with 50,000 of her ‘best friends’. The inspiration and ideas she carries back from Texas tide he over for several years until she is able to visit again.
Deborah Bunting
Born in Omaha, Deborah Bunting's grandmother was a needlework specialist and textile artist who taught her to knit, crochet, and hand sew, and encouraged her imagination. Bunting later progressed to textile arts and began creating art quilts. Through her textile artwork, she has sought to create a figuratively tactile link between the African American community and the world of art. She was an artist-in-residence for the Nebraska Arts Council, lead artist on the Bemis Mural Project at Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, and included in the exhibition A Greater Spectrum: African American Artists of Nebraska 1912-2010 at the Museum of Nebraska Art in 2010-11. Bunting recently retired from the Nebraska Arts Council, where she served as the Heritage Arts Manager. She is presently engaged with Joslyn Art Museum as Special Project Coordinator for the exhibition 30 Americans.