A quilting and storytelling project, led by Teaching Artist Jenny Pickens, became a lens for helping girls honor the stories of the Mars Hill Anderson Rosenwald School’s alumni and former teachers.
The new humanities PageLab, connecting history and the arts, took place inside the historic two-room schoolhouse. Students learned about the teachers, community members, and alumni who taught at, supported, and learned in the school. All of the teachers were African American and most of them were women, such as Mary Wilson, Frances Owens, Ruby Fortune, and Charity Ray.
These stories are important to our understanding of American history at any time, but as we moved through Black History month in February and now into Women’s History month in March, they feel especially relevant and timely.
The PAGE (Partnership for Appalachian Girls’ Education) program is excited to showcase some of the quilt squares students and teachers created last summer to honor the history of the Mars Hill Anderson Rosenwald School.
To see the whole collection of quilt squares, and to listen to PAGE students, interns, and teachers talk about their quilt squares and what inspired them, go to pageprograms.com/the-girls-projects/interdisciplinary-labs/humanities-lab/quilt-2021.
-
- Maia Surdam – Quilt Square
-
- Vanessa VanBumble – Quilt Square
-
- Destiny Chandler – Quilt Square
-
- Wrenn Treadway – Quilt Square
-
- Jenny Pickens – Quilt Square
-
- Anna Ingle – Quilt Square
-
- Wrenn Treadway making a quilt square.
-
- Lilly Rice holds the quilt square she made.
-
- Amy Stemann holds the quilt square she made.
The quilt squares shown here help preserve the legacy of the Mars Hill Anderson Rosenwald School. PAGE Program Director Maia Surdam worked with teaching artist and PAGE Project Facilitator Jenny Pickens to help the girls create the quilt squares.