Gee’s Bend and beyond: quiltmaking course

Please note: this is an in-person event only

From Marlene Bennett Jones to Faith Ringgold, African American quilts, especially quilts made by the community of Gee’s Bend in Alabama, have had a historically strong influence on contemporary quilting. Drawing inspiration from the quilts of Gee’s Bend that are on display in the RA’s exhibition Souls Grown Deep like the Rivers: Black Artists from the American South, participants in this weekend workshop learn how to create quilts based on the expressive and improvisational quilting techniques used by the artists of Gee’s Bend. More traditional quilting techniques can often dictate the pattern, colour and form of the finished product, whereas in this workshop, participants embark on a creative journey of improvisational piecing that allows for experimentation and creativity.

Over the weekend, artist and master quilter Alicia Merrett teaches participants to develop their piecing skills through freehand cutting and stitching, without rules or rulers, working with a range of cotton fabrics and the sewing machine. Throughout the weekend, participants work towards constructing improvisationally pieced ‘tops’, their own modern masterworks, with their work enhanced by talks on Gee’s Bend and African American quiltmaking, and a visit to the Souls Grown Deep like the Rivers: Black Artists from the American South exhibition.

To learn more about the history of textiles and quilting also join us for our Weaving Stories: Art and Textiles weekend art history course.

Alicia Merrett is an award-winning artist, and has been making contemporary art quilts since the mid-1990s. Her work is recognised and exhibited internationally in the UK, Europe, USA, Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, and Australia. Alicia has taught regularly in the UK and abroad and her work has appeared in a number of books, catalogues and magazines, including in SAQA’s ‘Art Quilts Unfolding’, and in ‘HERstory’.

Minimum age 18. If you have any accessibility needs, please contact public.programmes@royalacademy.org.uk.