|
Regional Center For The
Quilt at the University of Delaware
 The
Regional Center For The Quilt at the University of Delaware is a
partnership of the University's
Center for American Material Culture Studies (CAMCS) and The
Alliance for American Quilts. CAMCS
is an interdisciplinary and collaborative venture dedicated to the
documentation, preservation, interpretation, and exhibition of all
aspects of American material culture. Working closely with The Alliance,
it has played a leading role in developing and implementing a key
Alliance project: The Quilters' S.O.S.
- Save Our Stories. Quilters' S.O.S. - Save Our Stories provides
an easy-to-duplicate methodology that allows local quilt guilds
and other students of quilts to record oral histories of quilt makers.
ROLE IN COORDINATING QUILTERS' SAVE OUR STORIES
(QSOS) PROJECT
The Delaware Regional Center for The Quilt is the national coordinator
for the Quilters' S.O.S. - Save Our
Stories. In this role, it:
- Works with The Alliance to hold periodic national Quilters'
S.O.S. - Save Our Stories events at major quilt gatherings;
- Provides training for local guilds or comparable groups interested
in joining the Quilters' S.O.S. - Save
Our Stories project;
- Processes Quilters' S.O.S. - Save Our
Stories information, archiving it, and making it available
to scholars and students;
- Makes Q.SOS material available through The Alliance's website,
www.centerforthequilt.org.
- Coordinates updates and revisions of the Q.S.O.S.
manual to guide groups around the country to organize their
own QSOS events at the local level.
UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE'S PARTICIPATION IN OTHER
PROJECTS
The Center also works to implement other Alliance projects within
a six-state Mid-Atlantic region (including Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania,
New Jersey, and parts of Virginia and New York). These projects
include:
- Coordinating with state quilt projects in the region to include
their information in the Quilt
Index, an online research resource under development at Michigan
State University.
- Assisting in training Boxes
under the Bed™ researchers and providing necessary support
and materials to conduct a search throughout the region for quilt
documentation in need of preservation
- Establishing a regional archival repository for quilt documentation
that derives from Boxes and
other projects
- Pursuing oral history documentation of the region's individual
quilt makers through Quilters' S.O.S.
- Save Our Stories and Quilt
Treasures, and liaison with H-Net
to include that information on www.centerforthequilt.org.
The Center will also work with The Alliance and its partners to
develop and implement additional initiatives, such as:
- On-site and traveling study collections of quilt documentation
- On-site and traveling exhibitions on quilts, quilt making, and
the meaning of quilts in people's lives
- Forums and seminars for scholars and researchers
- Public education programs
If you are interested in supporting The
Regional Center for The Quilt at University of Delaware projects,
please click here.
|
