Opening Reception, Sunday, July 7th, 1-3pm

Making Community Story Quilts is an exhibition organized by the Queens Memory Project and artist Naomi Kuo for the Queens Museum’s Community Partnership Exhibition Program.

The Queens Memory Project celebrates and preserves contemporary history across the borough of Queens. It is a community archiving initiative built upon the stories, photos and other memorabilia of residents living in the most diverse county in the United States. Whenever possible, Queens Memory partners with local artists to conceive of creative programming for the public.

Making Community Story Quilts displays the products of workshops held in 2017 (Memories of Migration) and 2018 (Common Thread) that platformed memories of migration through storytelling and fabric arts. The resulting individual and collectively elaborated story quilts are embedded with recorded oral histories, inviting viewers to actively engage and explore the imagery and recordings. Common Thread was facilitated by Social Practice Queens (SPQ) student Naomi Kuo and Queens Memory in Flushing, Queens, bringing together diverse community members to explore the combination of textile arts, storytelling, skill sharing, and technology.Illustrations of the technological component of the work is part of the exhibited materials.

Also included in this exhibition is an ongoing embroidery map of Queens begun by the Self-Taught Genius Gallery and continued by Queens Memory, giving viewers an opportunity to engage with craft as a way to place themselves in the community. Visitors are invited to mark their own significant places in Queens. The Queens Memory team will be on-site with embroidery supplies for all ages and experience levels Saturdays and Sundays on July 7, 13, 14, 20, 21, 27, and 28 from 1 to 3 pm. Join us and add your story to the map!

As a culminating closing event, Queens Memory will host “Memory Kaleidoscope: a visual storytelling card game”, on Sunday, July 28th, from 1-3pm.

Queens Memory Project is an ongoing program supported by Queens Library and Queens College, CUNY, designed to collect stories, photographs and other records of life in the borough of Queens. Its mission is to empower residents from diverse backgrounds to document the personal histories that together tell a more complete story of life in the borough.

Social Practice Queens (SPQ) is a unique MFA concentration and new Advanced Certificate Program bringing together the resources of an academic research institution, Queens College, with the long-standing activism of the Queens Museum. The programs integrate studio work with social, tactical, interventionist and cooperative forms to initiate interdisciplinary projects with real world outcomes.

The Community Partnership Exhibition Program at the Queens Museum provides opportunities for cultural and other nonprofit organizational partners to develop and mount short-term exhibitions based on their programs and our collaborative projects.