Anacostia Community Museum
Expertise: Creative Direction/ Installation/ Project Management
About the Project
In 2019, Anacostia Community Museum was undergoing construction to the exterior and interior of the museum space to enhance the visitor experience. The changes made were to make the facility more engaging to the community while supporting both curatorial research and educational work in environmental stewardship, including a new community room/ internet lounge. The museum reached out to me, asking to submit a mural proposal for the rotunda in their community space. The overall goals of the community space were to facilitate a more welcoming and comfortable environment while having a distinctive quality specific to the museum.
During our research, we discovered that the museum had an extensive Black American quilting collection and requested access to the collection for inspiration. We met with the museum’s archivists to examine traditional Black American quilts made from the 19th and 20th centuries and stumbled across a fan quilt. This quilt stood out as it was outside of the ‘canon’ of quilts traditionally associated with Black American quilting, and we connected very strongly with the piece.
Research & Discovery
Biscuit Quilt Close Up
Flying Geese Pattern Close Up
Fan Quilt Pattern
Mural
Homage to the Unknown
Immediately struck by the concept of quilting as a means of building community. Inspired by the quilts found in the museum’s collection, this mural is a nod to a textile created during the Reconstruction era. Preserved with no record of its origin or intended purpose it was yet another reminder that our histories as Black people were not valued enough to be documented. Though the work is anonymous, there is something to be celebrated in the creativity and ingenuity of the pattern, design, and vibrancy. There is freedom in imagining who produced this work and we are paying homage to them, the idea of the maker.
Community Room