Quilting in the Age of the Pandemic

Work by MICA Quilt Raffle Group, photo credit: Andrea Dixon.

The MICA Quilt Raffle Group originated in 2015 at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), founded by Fiber Art Department faculty member Susie Brandt. Brandt organized a weekly gathering of students, staff, faculty, and alumni to work together on quilts that were eventually raffled to help fund student scholarships at the college. In 2017, their group expanded to include members of the African American Quilters of Baltimore.

When the pandemic hit in March 2020, Brandt found herself teaching remotely from Lake Luzerne, NY.  That May she used the tools she’d learned teaching online to reassemble the group. She posted step by step tutorials and other resources on a website, and distributed materials and tools via USPS. Members mailed finished hand-stitched quilt blocks to Brandt in Lake Luzerne, where she assembled the quilts.

For two years the MICA Raffle Quilt Group met weekly on Zoom where stitchers shared their works in progress, helpful hints, other related projects, as well as their joys and their sorrows. Word spread, and people from across the US joined, ranging in age from 10-82.

Since 2015 the number of participants has grown, as well as the project’s creative quilt work, and proceeds from their auctioned quilts have benefitted numerous organizations. Collectively 76 people made a total of 15 quilts – with two more in the works.  A selection of those quilts will be shown at Lake George Arts Project’s Courthouse Gallery from September 28 through October 29, 2022.

Through their determination to continue creative work as a group, the Raffle Quilt Project group continues to meet regularly.
Their work was recently featured in the Art Journal Bmore Art: Finding a Common Thread: MICA’s Quilt Club

Here is a list of the all the participants to date:
Andrea Dixon, Baltimore, MD
Ann Marie Cordner, Baltimore, MD
Anna Brackett, Baltimore, MD
Audrey Naiva, Wauwatosa, WI
Betty Racicot, Idylewylde, MD
Beverly Ahern, Kansas City, MO
Carol Frost, Baltimore, MD
Christine Manganaro, Baltimore, MD
Clare Conteh-Morgan, Wauwatosa, WI
Cole Wade, Baltimore, MD
Dr. Denise Bailey-Jones, Baltimore, MD
Dr. Leslie King Hammond, Baltimore, MD
Dr. Lowery Sims, Baltimore, MD
Drew Morse, Baltimore, MD
Ellen Burchenal, Baltimore, MD
Emma Fowler, Sacramento, CA
Erika Carruth, Columbia, MD
Finn Chlebowski, Austin, TX
Gabriel Roethe, Rockford, IL
Gladys Perkins, Aptos, CA
Glenda Richardson, Ft. Washington, MD
Hannah Moog, Baltimore, MD
Jan Stinchcomb, Abingdon, MD
Jane Khattak, Baltimore, MD
Janine D’Adamo, Baltimore, MD
Joan Freedman, Baltimore, MD
Joann (Linda) Dixon, Halethorpe, MD
Joseph Malson, Savannah, GA
Julia Racicot, Baltimore, MD
Justin Darrow, Baltimore, MD
Karen Carroll, Chester, PA
Kathy Cowan, Baltimore, MD
Katie Commodore, Providence, RI
Kenya Miles, Baltimore, MD
Kibibi Ajunku, Baltimore, MD
Kirra Barnes, York, PA
Leighann Gross, Baltimore, MD
Linah Sedeek, Towson, MD
Lowell Zelenka, Baltimore, MD
Maddie Olsen, Baltimore, MD
Mahala Mrozek, Baltimore, MD
Maia Malakoff, Baltimore, MD
Malvina D’Alterio, Baltimore, MD
Margaret D’Adamo, Baltimore, MD
Marla Parker, Baltimore, MD
Nina Bova, Stony Brook, NY
Oletha DeVane, Baltimore, MD
Omalara Williams McCalister, Dorchester, MA
Patty Gallivan, Baltimore, MD
Piper Shepard, Baltimore, MD
Rae Drotleff, Baltimore, MD
Robin King, Temple Hills, MD
Rodette Jones, Baltimore, MD
Rosa Chang, Baltimore, MD
Rosalind F Robinson, Ellicott City, MD
Ruben Reynolds, Baltimore, MD
Sanzi Kermes, Baltimore, MD
Sarah Barnes, Linthicum, MD
Sarah Black Sadler, Tallahassee, FL
Sarah Magida, Baltimore, MD
Sharone Conteh-Morgan, Wauwatosa, WI
Sophia Gentile, Canton, CT
Susan Tuberville, Baltimore, MD
Susie Brandt, Baltimore, MD
Suzanne Coley, Parkville, MD
Suzanne Hill, Towson, MD
Talia Melcer, Washington, DC
Terri Ach, Duluth, MN
Tiffany Holmes, Towson, MD
Tobyanne Suyemoto, Chestnut Hill, MA
Ursula Populoh, Baltimore, MD
Valeska Populoh, Baltimore, MD
Vanessa Perrigo, Baltimore, MD
Will Grimm, Cleveland, OH

The Courthouse Gallery is located at the side entrance of the Old County Courthouse, corner of Canada and Lower Amherst Streets in Lake George, NY. During scheduled exhibitions dates our in-person office and gallery hours are Wednesday through Friday 12 – 5 pm, Saturday 12 – 4 pm.

If you need to reach us between active exhibition dates we are available through phone and/or email:
Laura Von Rosk, Gallery Director, 518.323.5499, laura@lakegeorgearts.org
Tanya Tobias-Tomis, Executive Director, 518.832.0183, tanya@lakegeorgearts.org

This exhibition is funded in part by the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York State Legislature; the Town and Village of Lake George; Price Chopper’s Golub Foundation; 518 Profiles; The Alfred Z Solomon Charitable Trust and LGAP members. Please Join us today!

thank you to our sponsors: