HUGE quilts, a giant nest and a hand-stitched laptop computer are amongst the textile art on display in an exhibition of quilts and textiles celebrating connection, community and creativity.
Significant Seams has drawn international attention and regional investment for its commitment to instigating positive social change using creativity.
The Quarantine Quilts will be amongst nine distinctive artworks on display in a natural garden setting, which will be held from 2pm to 5pm. People from across the country made squares for the quilts, which were created as part of a national stitching project developed by Significant Seams.
The group of artists recognised that everyone was vulnerable, that mental wellbeing was an issue for many, and that people needed to connect during lockdown.
The Quarantine Quilt Project included art and wellbeing workshops delivered via Zoom, and the creation of three community quilts. For the exhibition, the quilts hang together in a representation of the inside and outside of a home: the walls of lockdown. To create the quilts, Significant Seams supplied more than 150 creative kits by post to some of the most isolated and vulnerable people in Devon, as well as nationally and internationally.
With support from Arts Council England, they also commissioned four new artworks which will be part of the exhibition. Director Catherine West said: “Artists make sense of their world through the act of making. In fact, I believe we all do.
“Enabling our artists to make art during the tumultuous period we were living through was the right thing to do.
“However, the job isn’t finished. The goal of the Quarantine Quilt Project was connection and mutual support. We achieved a lot of that, but now we need to connect people in person.
“This exhibition is designed to do that. We are inviting the more than 400 people we’ve engaged with since the beginning of lockdown to come and say hello. We’re also hoping to meet future collaborators – members of our community who would like to use creativity to connect with others.” The Quarantine Quilt Project is included in “The Creative Instigators Handbook” a new book released this month by Arsenal Pulp Publishers.
At the exhibition, The Bookery, another Crediton social enterprise drawing massive accolades, will be on-hand with copies of the new release.
A third Crediton social enterprise, The Turning Tides Project, which run the tea rooms at Crediton Station, will provide catering for the event.
All three social enterprises won a prestigious leadership and business accelerator programme delivered by the School for Social Entrepreneurs, along with a substantial grant to develop their businesses.
Significant Seams hopes the evidence from the rigorous measuring of their programmes will interest employers.
Research shows that the projects have had a substantial impact on participants’ sense of energy, interest and, most surprisingly, decisiveness – all traits that they believe businesses want to encourage in their employees.
Catherine said: “Public Health data shows that In South West England, over 600,000 people are living with common mental health challenges. By developing partnerships with businesses, we can massively increase our reach and impact.”
The exhibition event will feature artworks from several other Significant Seams projects and commissions. This spring, Significant Seams delivered an arts and health research project for One Northern Devon, a partnership of organisations working together to improve wellbeing and reduce health inequalities.
The participants created a wall hanging entitled “Going with The Flow”, which will be on display as part of the exhibition. The exhibition also includes a giant nest made with groups of unpaid carers, and a selection of work made by young people during the Devon County Council Holiday Activity and Food Programme. The exhibition will be well signposted and all are welcome to attend. Booking to inform catering is appreciated but not necessary.
The event is free, and attendees are invited to “Donate What You Can”.