Virtual First Friday: Eliza Hardy Jones

Virtual First Friday: Eliza Hardy Jones

Friday, August 7, 2020

Join the International Quilt Museum for a virtual First Friday presentation on Friday, August 7 at 4:30 p.m. Central on our Facebook and YouTube channels (the recording is available for later viewing). Musician and Quiltmaker Eliza Hardy Jones will give a program sharing stories about her quilts and some of the music that inspired them.

A selection of her works are on display at the IQM in “Eliza Hardy Jones: Song Quilts.”

How can the ephemeral, short-lived experience of a musical performance be expressed in a tangible, enduring artform? Jones explores this question in her Song Quilts project.

Jones traveled across the U.S. and Northwest Russia recording folk songs sung by women, which she then transcribed into written music. Next, she developed a notation method that translates pitch—the highness or lowness of a sound—into color, and rhythm into shape. The resulting quilts are “read” from top left to bottom right. Jones selected predominant colors and quilting patterns to reflect her impressions of the song, the singer, and the experience of sharing music.

With each quilt, Jones materialized the women’s voices as they sang to preserve their communities’ traditions and identity.

Funding was provided by Humanities Nebraska and the National Endowment for the Humanities as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.