The Bennington Museum in Bennington, Vermont, will be showing an exhibit of art quilts from Haiti this fall. The quilts are part of a project called Haitian Peace Quilts, an effort to relieve poverty in the embattled Caribbean nation. The quilts are part of an exhibition entitled “Patience to Raise the Sun: Art Quilts from Haiti,” that have been part of a special collaboration between quilters in Vermont and their counterparts in Haiti.

For over a year, representatives of a local Bennington quilting group have been working with quilters from Haiti, teaching skills, and providing a fair trade market for their goods (see link to their website below). Many of the quilts created draw on cultural imagery and the rich Haitian tradition of embroidery. Masterpiece quilts from this unique partnership will be on view in this beautiful show. The Bennington Museum calls it an unprecedented exhibition organized by the museum and PeaceQuilts, a humanitarian organization working to relieve poverty by supporting women quilters.

This exhibition will be open from Sept. 5 to Nov. 8.

For more information and directions go to http://www.benningtonmuseum.org/index.aspx

Images above: Ranje Kabann (top) and L’Arbre de Vie (bottom).

The images are from the Haiti Peace Quilt website, where you can purchase art quilts by Haitian women. They can be seen at http://www.haitipeacequilts.org/Home_Page.html