Quilts and Texas Independence

The idea for the March exhibit was an easy one. The volunteers had mentioned it prior. They suggested an exhibit of quilts and or Texas Independence. I did not want an all quilt show because it would limit the audience. So, I combined the two ideas.

Quilts
    The Museum has about 30 quilts in storage so I knew that we would have from which to choose. Hanging the quilts was the issue. I went to a quilt show and saw what others were doing. The quilts needed to have a pocket into which a rod is inserted and then the rod is suspended from the ceiling or the wall. Not all of the Museum's quilts had pockets, so I chose those with pockets. I would up with too many of the same color palette or very boring looking ones. Ultimately I chose ten quilts to display. Here are some pictures.

The front quilt is from South Dakota and celebrates its statehood. It is from 1880s.

The quilt with the red spots is from about 1840. The others are 1920s and 1930s.

The Texas quilt is not handmade or old. I used it because of the theme and the size covered that wall perfectly.

The purple quilt is the Weslaco Anniversary quilt. To celebrate the city's 75th anniversary, several city groups got together and each panel denotes a decade or significant events.

Texas Independence

    This part of the exhibit was more difficult to realize. The Museum does not have any artifacts that could be used to tell the story. After much deliberation I decided to tell a brief story and maybe get the viewers to continue researching or reading on their own. I arranged the movable panels in a diagonal across the galley's space. This created a 24 foot wall. This arrangement took some of the volunteers aback. They had never seen this arrangement. 

     On one side of the wall were portraits of some of the key players in the battle for independence. beneath each portrait was a brief biography of the individual and his role in the fight for independence.  On the other side of the wall I displayed maps showing the changing boundaries of Texas beginning prior to 1803 and the Louisiana Purchase, after Mexican independence from Spain, after Texas independence and after the Mexican American War. There was also a display of different flags used during the fight for independence. Another panel asked, "Why Declare Independence?" This set the background for the story. A different panel was a tribute to the "Yellow Rose of Texas." I could not omit the names of those 189 who died at the Alamo. This list also identifies the person's origins.

This shows the panel dissecting the gallery space.

At the far end of the picture is the tribute to the Yellow Rose.

I sprinkled some old artifacts here and there to add some character to the exhibit. If I had had a budget, the images, biographies, and maps would have been professionally printed and mounted on foam core.

I was very happy with the outcome. The exhibit was ready for the March 1 deadline. I did not think I would be able to put it together.