Quilt Alliance

The Quilt Alliance will use In These Mountains Infrastructure funds to assess current marketing approaches and create print and online marketing materials that improve communication with quilters and non-quilters. Information will be disseminated via educational booths at regional quilt shows and festivals. The grant will also support professional development and conference and registration for board and staff to increase skills in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and current oral history best practice. Staff fieldwork is also included in the budget to allow for follow-up research in the Appalachian communities served in 2023. Emergency readiness and accessibility tools and services round out the much-needed infrastructure support provided by the grant.

Through the Quilt Alliance’s grassroots oral history and documentation work with individuals and groups in the quilt community, they use in-person and virtual sessions to record quilt makers and quilt owners. Identifying quilts is part of their process, and they often work alongside historians to provide educational references during the documentation process. The most important service the Quilt Alliance provides to their community is the chance to see their work recognized in an archive and hear the stories of artists in their community.