Gallery Talk: Maureen Kelleher, Social Justice Quilts Project

Maureen Kelleher, co-founder of the Social Justice Collaboration Quilts Project at Angola Pr*son, will speak about her work with the incarcerated quilt creators and the process of creating the pieces on view in the exhibition Stitching Time.

About the Exhibition: Stitching Time features 12 quilts created by men who are incarcerated in the Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as Angola Pr*son. These works of art, and accompanying recorded interviews, tell the story of a unique inside-outside quilt collaboration. The exhibition focuses our attention on the quilt creators, people often forgotten by society when discussing the history of the U.S. criminal justice system. Also on view in the gallery will be Give Me Life, a selection of works from women artists presently or formerly incarcerated at York Correctional Institution, a maximum security state Pr*son in Niantic, CT, courtesy of Community Partners in Action (CPA). The CPA’s Pr*son Arts program was initiated in 1978 and is one of the longest-running projects of its kind in the United States. Founded in 1875, CPA is celebrating 150 years of working within the criminal justice system. For more information on the exhibition, click here.

Image: Kenya Baleech Alkebu (quilt design); Maureen Kelleher (quilting), Red, White and Baldwin, 2016, mixed cotton blends and acrylic paint. Lent by Maureen Kelleher, © Maureen Kelleher

Host or Publisher Fairfield University Art Museum