PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Presque Isle Historical Society has received a grant from Maine Humanities Council with which to create a new exhibit around 10 antique quilts from its collections, and eighth-graders at Presque Isle Middle School will put their own mark on the show.
The quilt exhibit will be on display at the Maysville Museum at 165 Caribou Road when it re-opens for the spring.
The quilts chosen for the exhibit include a “crazy” quilt, a hand-embroidered selection, and both hand- and machine-stitched quilts ranging from the late 1800s to the mid-1900s in a wide array of colors and patterns. An antique cabinet from a local schoolhouse will house the textiles.
The historical society will collaborate with Presque Isle Middle School to involve all 100-plus students in the eighth grade. Students will contribute descriptive write-ups on each quilt as well as poems.
During their three-week poetry module, the students will view photographs of all of the quilts and will actually examine several samples from the collection. They will be asked to consider why quilts were needed, what type of fabrics were used, how the colors and patterns make them feel, if they believe the quilts are art, how quilts are made (to learn more about the labor involved), and to look at the fabric from an economic standpoint — whether it was a luxury item such as velvet, or how long it may have taken to use natural fibers such as cotton, wool, silk and linen, which had to be grown, harvested and then processed into fabric before being used in a quilt.
Students will then write a poem inspired by the quilts.
Kim Smith, curator of the exhibit for Presque Isle Historical Society, explained, “This collaboration was inspired by the Poem Card Project established by Maine Poet Laureate Stuart Kestenbaum and introduced at the Governor’s Conference on Tourism in April 2018.
“Kestenbaum, in collaboration with the Maine Office of Tourism, recently undertook a Poem Card Project in which poems by Maine authors based on rural life were placed in hotels around the state. The project was an extension of his ‘Poems From Here’ weekly poetry readings on Maine Public Radio,” said Smith.
In fact, she added, Kestenbaum wrote a letter to the Maine Humanities Council in support of her grant application for this project.
For more information call 762-1151, e-mail pihistoricalsociety@hotmail.com, or visit their website at www.pihistory.org.
