April 14 , 2007

Mark Your Calendar – GRAND OPENING !!!

The grand opening of The National Museum of the American Coverlet has been set for Saturday and Sunday, May 26-27, during the Memorial Day holiday weekend. Special events will include the 83rd annual meeting of the Colonial Coverlet Guild of America, speakers, weaving and spinning demonstrations and more. Collectors are invited to bring coverlets for an informal “show and tell.” A schedule of events, motel information and response form are here.

• Sumpter Priddy III, Virginia historian/researcher/author will present his lecture “American Fancy – Exuberance in the Arts 1790-1840.” Mr. Priddy’s book of the same title received the 2004 Historic New England Book Prize for its “significant contribution to the study of American and New England Culture.” Sumpter, a former teaching curator at Colonial Williamsburg, has a specific interest in architecture, history and the decorative arts. His lecture will focus on 19 th century decorative arts, including coverlets and the invention of the kaleidoscope, and how these and other objects were “purposefully designed to activate the senses, stimulate the emotions, and please the eyes.”
  
• Craufurd Goodwin will discuss his collection of southern coverlets from the Piedmont region. Mr. Goodwin, who lives in North Carolina, is a member of the Colonial Coverlet Guild of America and a longtime collector.
  
• Kathy Mellinger Plack will talk about her census research into Western Pennsylvania Textiles from the 1850s. Mrs. Plack is Librarian for the Washington Spinners & Weavers Guild, Herminie, PA. She is a collector, spinner and weaver.
  
• “Sheep-to-shawl” event – The four-member team of Susan Dyer Lightner (weaver), Linda Gross and Marilyn Merbach (spinners), along with Kathy Mellinger Plack, will produce a woven textile, from the fleece to the finished product. Each of these ladies has over 25 years of experience with spinning, weaving and sheep-to-shawl contests. They have competed at the Pennsylvania Farm Show, the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival and the Waynesburg Sheep and Fiber Festival. They belong to several spinning and weaving groups. They reside in Butler County, Pennsylvania .
  
• Ruth Anne Miller will demonstrate her unique style of pictorial “pickup” weaving. Her work has appeared on the cover of Handwoven magazine. She teaches at Mansfield State University in Pennsylvania and is a Roster Artist with the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.
  
• ... and more! In the meantime, the Museum is open daily for all who wish to see the progress. Visitors are always welcome.