The gallery tour will focus on the current exhibition War and Pieced: The Annette Gero Collection of Quilts from Military Fabrics, by selecting works that convey the creators’ sense of geographic identity. These aspects of the creators’ identities are evident in the availability, choice, and arrangement of colors of broadcloth, thread, and other materials. Although it is clear that the availability of the broadcloth of soldiers’ uniforms guided the creators’ choices, we can read into several of these works a symbolic purpose evocative of the ideals and identities of their creators. These artists transcended the brutality of warfare not only through the therapeutic act of making something beautiful, but also by memorializing their lives in vivid color.

New Perspectives tours are led by the American Folk Art Museum teaching fellow, an emerging scholar in art education, art history, or a related field. The topics of the tours are based on the fellow’s ongoing research and are designed to engage participants in focused examinations of selected objects. The current American Folk Art Museum teaching fellow is Matthew Capezzuto, a doctoral student in the Department of Art and Art Education at Teachers College, Columbia University.