Power to The Peaceful Quilt Exhibit

Godwin-Ternbach Museum is hosting a Peace Quilt Exhibit which grew out of a Peace Quilt project.

This Power to the Peaceful quilt was made by teachers from India and part of the around-the-world exhibit that opened Dec. 15 at the Godwin-Ternbach museum. Courtesy of CUNY/Queens College

FLUSHING, New York— Godwin-Ternbach Museum is hosting a Peace Quilt Exhibit which grew out of a Peace Quilt project. The project has created a bridge between the East Bronx Academy for the Future and a vocational school for girls operated by the Pardada Pardadi Educational Society in a village in Bulandshar, India. Professor Rikki Asher, from the Bronx Academy visited the Indian girls’ school in 2007. The girls’ school helps young artisans to escape poverty by providing free training. The training includes many marketable skills, such as block printing, embroidery, and appliqué.

When Professor Rikki returned this year she brought a handmade quilt as a gift. The quilt was made by the students of the East Bronx Academy for the future. The Indian students attended a workshop given by Professor Rikki to teach them how to quilt and make a quilt to exchange with the Academy. A second quilt was made by 19 of the Pardada Pardadi teachers; world peace is honored and celebrated in the quilts. These quilts are destined for permanent exhibition in the Bronx school.

“As the world grows smaller and communication ever faster, it is vitally important for global understanding to go hand in hand with globalization,” says Professor Asher in a press release. “The Peace Quilt project, initiated in New York and taken to northern India, demonstrates understanding and empathy in a way that no business arrangement ever could. They rose to the challenge of creating works that communicate the essence of their lives through art.”