Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea
Kentucky Quilt Trails: Views and Voices Celebration Oct 4 at Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea

A reception, book signing, and quilting demonstration will be held at the Kentucky Artisan Center on Saturday, October 4 to celebrate the release of Kentucky Quilt Trails: Views and Voices.  This book features a selection of the quilt squares that have been appearing on barns, buildings, parks and other buildings across the Commonwealth.  These painted quilt squares are part of a quilt trail being developed for travelers' enjoyment and to celebrate family and local heritage through the quilting tradition. 

Published by the Kentucky Arts Council, Kentucky Quilt Trails: Views and Voices, features 32 pages of beautiful photographs and writings by Kentucky's visual and literary artists, with cover art by Emmy Houweling and an introduction by Silas House. Contributing writers are Annette Allen, Normandi Ellis, Silas House, Christina Lovin, Davis McCombs, Deborah Reed-Downing, Joanne Seiff, Martha Bennett Stiles, Frank X. Walker and Jeff Worley. The photographers featured are Matthew Albritton, Patricia Brock, Ann W. Olson, Dinah Smiley, David Toczko, Ralph Tyree and Carole Shutt.  Alfredo Escobar and Gwenda Lynn Huff (Kentucky Folklife Program Community Scholars) also contributed to the book. Copies of Kentucky Quilt Trails: Views & Voices are available at the Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea for $9.95.

Artists and volunteers involved with the book and development of the quilt trail have been invited to join the public to celebrate the book release on Saturday, October 4 at the Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea. Light refreshments will be served from 11:00 – 2:00, and Carol Ann White of Mt. Vernon, and Debbie Lay of Lawrenceburg, will be demonstrating quilting from 10:30 - 3:30 that day.

From 11:00 am – 1:00 pm, acclaimed Kentucky author Silas House will sign copies of this new publication. Author of the novels Clay’s Quilt, A Parchment of Leaves, The Coal Tattoo, and the play The Hurting Part, House has received Kentucky Novel of the Year Awards, the Award for Special Achievement from the Fellowship of Southern Writers, the Appalachian Book of the Year Award, the Chaffin Award, and other recognition for his work. Silas House is a native of Eastern Kentucky.

Book release events will also be held at the Kentucky Folk Art Center, 102 West First Street, Morehead, KY on Tuesday, Oct. 7 from 4:30-6:40 pm and at the Museum of the American Quilter’s Society, 215 Jefferson St., Paducah, KY on Saturday, October 18 from 11:00 am – 2:00 pm (CDT). These book release receptions are free and open to the public.

This publication and these special celebrations are sponsored by the Kentucky Arts Council, a state agency in the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet. Kentucky Arts Council funding is provided by the Kentucky General Assembly and the National Endowment for the Arts.

A large selection of Kentucky books, including Kentucky Quilt Trails: Views & Voices are regularly available at the Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea, located at 975 Walnut Meadow Road, just off Interstate 75 at exit 77 (Berea). The Center’s exhibits, shopping, and travel information areas are all open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and the café from 11:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Admission is free. The Center currently features works by more than 650 artisans from over 100 counties from all across the Commonwealth. For more information call 859-985-5448 or visit the Center’s web site at www.kentuckyartisancenter.ky.gov 

The Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea is an agency in the Tourism, Arts & Heritage Cabinet.