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(04/01/14 2:35am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU Cinema is screening films this month to remember the almost one million people killed in Rwanda during its 1994 genocide.This April marks the 20th anniversary of the genocide.In remembrance of the tragedy, IU student organization the Books & Beyond Project and the Global Village Living-Learning Center teamed up with IU Cinema to screen a film series including films “Sometimes in April,” showing today, “As We Forgive,” on April 8 and “Africa United,” on April 22. All showings start at 7 p.m.Dr. Jeffrey D. Holdeman, the director of the Global Village Living-Learning Center, said he believed a film series would visually educate students about the Rwandan Genocide, the aftermath and the impact Books & Beyond has on current Rwandan students.Students involved with Books & Beyond work with students from a TEAM Charter School in Newark, N.J., and Rwanda’s Kabwende Primary School to write children’s short stories.In its sixth year of operation, the organization produced about 2,000 student-authored books to increase the literacy rate of children in Rwanda and promote education.Junior Emily Beeson, the treasurer of Books & Beyond, joined the group for its local, national and international impact.“I wanted my college experience to be present on campus, but at the same time, there’s a world outside of college, outside of IU that I really wanted to be in touch with,” Beeson said. Holdeman said he wishes for students to establish a connection to the genocide past the confinements of the classroom.“We spend so much time reading textbooks and articles in our classes and that distance that’s created between the person who wrote it and the electronics it’s printed on and you are sitting in a coffee shop reading it or in class and discussing it, there’s so much distance there,” he said. Beeson said students who come to watch the film series should view the movies with an open mind on a dark topic.At the end of each film, Holdeman said specialists have been asked to come present a talk back session where questions will be answered, discussions started and resources shared.He said in Rwanda, impediments on speech about the genocide in political, legal and sociocultural laws prevent a dialogue from occurring.“You have this very moving experience, and you can’t just have an open conversation about what happened,” Holdeman said. “The film series allows us to have some of a discussion, allows for people to have a way of learning more and having a starting place.”
(03/10/14 3:19am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Vendors, teachers, quilters and visitors returned to Bloomington this weekend for the 23rd annual Indiana Heritage Quilt Show. Quilts entered in the show were hung on display for judges and guests to view Thursday through Saturday at the Bloomington Convention Center. Volunteers stood at their posts throughout the building next to quilts in categories of pieced, appliqué, youth quilters and art.One volunteer, Dawna Petersen, returned to the quilt show after a long hiatus. Petersen said she mostly admires the works at the show, but she has made a couple of quilts herself. “I sometimes add some quilting to something else I’m doing, but I don’t do full quilts,” she said.Petersen said she is a textile and tactile person who enjoys the eye candy of quilts. She said as a woman who’s sewn for a great deal of her life, her favorite part of the show was talking to visitors who were admiring the works on display. “When I wander through alone, it’s probably trying to deconstruct designs, figuring out how to the pieces went together,” she said. Petersen said though choosing a favorite quilt among the entries was too difficult a task for her, art quilts are her favorite. Another volunteer, Danielle Abplanalp, rejoined the task force at the quilt show for her third year.She said her mother, an avid quilter of 25 years, got her into the craft. Abplanalp said she considers herself a novice.“I started basically quilting baby quilts for friends,” she said. “Everyone seemed to be having babies at the same time, so I started making quilts.”Abplanalp said she suggests to other newbies like herself to work through the difficulties of finding quality materials, thread, learning equipment and basic techniques. She said it is necessary to work through the basics in order to reach the enjoyable aspect of quilting.“A lot of it you can get from books and people that you know, and if you join a quilt guild, you have a whole bunch of people to talk to about it,” she said. Alplanalp also said she encourages people who might be intimidated by the craft to start small and to be content with making mistakes. “You don’t get to the level of this quality overnight,” she said, waving her hand at a first place appliqué quilt behind her. “It’s just a matter of having fun, enjoying the colors and the process.”Alpanalp said she believed the Bloomington quilt show revealed heavily artistic quilts more than most venues.“There’s not as many traditional style quilts in this show versus other ones where they have a lot more simple patterns,” she said. “This is much more artistic.”Petersen said she also noticed a difference in Bloomington’s quilt festivities in terms of traditional design. She said there seemed to be a push for more machine quilting and a change in the applicants of Bloomington’s show.“When I volunteered before, the show was pretty new in Bloomington and most of the entries were from the area, so it’s got a much broader geographical scope,” Petersen said. “Now there are quilts here from all over the country.”While observing visitors and receiving feedback from them, Petersen said she wanted others to come to the show for inspiration rather than comparison.“I’ve heard a lot of people say today, ‘Oh, what I do just isn’t anything like this,’ but what they do is about them,” she said. “We’ve all got gifts to give and they are different.”Alpanalp said she wanted the volunteers, entries and organizers of the show to encourage those around them.“Even if you’re not going to do quilting, it’s a great place just to see colors and get any kind of artistic direction,” she said.
(03/06/14 3:53am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The annual Indiana Heritage Quilt Show will return today through March 8 to Bloomington for the 23rd time. With more than $12,000 in prize money, competing quilters will display their works to the public and selected judges from the National Quilting Association. Starting in Columbus, Ind., the show made a move to Bloomington because of a lack of space for events. In the downtown area, more than 200 quilts will be shown in the Bloomington Convention Center and expanded vender booths. Co-chair and judging chair member Jane Pitt said she urges all types of observers to visit this display of textile artistry. “We encourage tradition and innovation,” she said. From young quilters joining the ranks in a ribbon-only category to contestants well into their senior years, there is a wide age range in participants. One of the youngest competitors in the youth category is a 14-year-old girl in her fourth year of entering a quilt in the show. Young quilters are evaluated on their pieces and receive critical feedback in order to perfect their novice skills, she said. Pitt said she wishes to inspire young people to take up quilting, and hopes they see something at the show that appeals to them.“Something that might encourage younger people to take a second look, and think, ‘You know, this isn’t just something that Grandma does,’” she said.Sewing work isn’t exclusive to women. Pitt said. Though men certainly remain the minority in craftwork, she personally has seen more join the practice of quilting. “(Male quilters) seem to be on the rise,” she said. “In fact, one of the judges for our show is a male, and he is a quilter himself.” Workshops lead by seven nationally-recognized teachers and other quilters will take place throughout the quilt show to teach skills and different techniques of the craft. Pitt said needles and thread aren’t the only elements being taught to crafters. A class with painting elements will be taught as well. “Next year there will be another selection of teachers giving workshops, so there’s an opportunity to learn basics as well as more specialized techniques,” Pitt said. The quilt show upholds conventional values of quilting and encourages a recollection of the traditional quilt on the observer, Pitt said. She said the quilts displayed have shifted in purposes of warmth and comfort to tread new ground in art. Pieces depicting social and political statements have appeared in past shows. “There is a huge diversity in the quilting styles,” Pitt said. “We have everything from the most traditional American in style, basic sleep-under quilt, to just, works of art.” Co-chair Sue McDaniel said she’s seen an artistic turn in the practice of quilt making. She said there’s been a shift in the practice to an art medium rather than the traditional use of necessity in the quilt. “Quilts today are not your grandmother’s quilts,” McDaniel said. Because of the expansion in artistic expression, categories for competition quilts have grown, she said. McDaniel said the classes span fairly to allow different types of works into entry. “We have several different categories, if it’s a piece versus an appliqué versus an art quilt,” she said. “There’s also categories for the size. Techniques are very wide open.”Though a niche area of craft expertise might seem intimidating to some, Pitt said there’s a little bit of everything for everyone at the quilt show. “Everyone should come and enjoy the show,” McDaniel said. “Because anyone who enjoys art would appreciate the quilts.“