Welcome to the SYS: Art and Community Quilt Project! This project was developed by Professor Susannah Biondo-Gemmell and created by her Cornell College Second Year Seminar: Art and Community students. The project includes both a physical textile quilt and digital website. Students were asked to choose an enduring or current social, political, or environmental issue to explore through visual, audio, and written modalities. Each student created an individual textile block shedding light on their chosen topic. The blocks were then joined together to create a collaborative textile quilt which is displayed at the SYS symposium each year. In addition to the textile quilt, students digitally documented their work and developed audio and written narratives reflecting their research and creative choices. The students completed both the physical and digital quilt project in 18 days during one Cornell block. The goal of the project is to explore citizenship within the visual arts by bringing awareness to enduring issues that matter deeply to the student artists. The quilt acts as a visual snapshot of each class’ current concerns. The quilt was started fall of 2022 and will continue to grow with time.

Please take time to explore the quilt images and narratives by clicking on each block.