“Not Your Grandma’s Quilts” Wotiz Gallery exhibit to take place in November

The Wotiz Gallery of the Milton Public Library will be hosting two separate exhibits during the month of November, each for one-half of the month. The collection called “Not Your Grandma’s Quilts” by Barbara Graceffa will continue to grace the Gallery from November lst through the 12th.  This is a lovely fabric exhibit, and as a teacher, artist and quilter, Ms. Graceffa is self-taught and has received several awards for her work, including “Best in Show – Blue Ribbon Quilt” at the Marshfield Fair. She is an instructor at the New England Quilt Museum located in Lowell, MA, and also teaches many different classes about design, decluttering, home staging, and more, having also presented some virtual talks at our library.

This gallery collection shows 20 traditional and contemporary quilts and wall hangings which Barbara started exhibiting in 2018.  Her pieced and applique wall quilts are simple in design, but they are unique in that her choice of fabrics and how she pairs them, transforms them, and sometimes embellishes them makes her work stand out from other quilters’ art.   In her first juried show, her art quilt “Out on a Limb” was chosen by The Brush Gallery to appear in its annual art quilt exhibition. This upcoming Wotiz exhibit is her fourth solo display in the past 6 years, and she is a member of 4 quilt guilds from Abington to Arlington. She is also a talented columnist for the Quincy Sun and works with clients as an interior decorator. For more information about her work, her website is: sec-interior.com 

Then, starting on November 15th, a new exhibit will be installed in the Gallery, and this is called: “The Opioid Project: Changing Perceptions Through Art and Storytelling.” In this interactive display, residents of Milton – all of whom have been impacted by the Opioid epidemic – gathered together with Boston-based artist Nancy Marks, and Health Story Collaborative founder Annie Brewster, to form a safe space to process their personal experiences through creating collages and sharing stories. These stories became audio recordings, and together with the art, they contextualize and bring to life the human costs of the opioid epidemic. The finished work will be shown in the Wotiz Gallery from 11/14 through the end of December 2022.  Each art collage will be paired with its recorded audio story, and these stories are powerful. The Milton Coalition is focused on the prevention of substance use and the promotion of mental health among youth. The art and stories that came out of this workshop will be used in the organization’s prevention and education work here in Milton.

The Opioid Project will be paired with a display of art created by students as they responded to the question: “What does teen mental health look like in Milton today?”  The Milton Coalition believes in amplifying the voices of young people. Youth mental health is in a crisis right now, and substance use disorders co-occur at high prevalence with mental disorders. These powerful expressions by young people are a close look at what they are experiencing in their lives today. The 11/15-12/31 exhibits are part of a large collaborative project between The Milton Coalition and the Forbes House Museum. The Forbes House display is called: “Opium: The Business of Addiction.”  The Forbes display has two parts: at the Forbes House Museum, you can learn about the Forbes family’s involvement in the 19th century opium trade, its links to the current opioid epidemic, and its lasting impact on U.S.-Sino relations.  On the 2nd floor of the Milton Public Library, you can learn about the current opioid epidemic and its tragic impact on individuals and families in Milton and across the country.  Please see the Forbes House Museum website for more information about “Opium: The Business of Addition:” www.forbeshousemuseum.org  And for more information about the Milton Coalition, including important resources to combat youth substance use, go to: www.milton-coalition.org or Email [email protected]  The Milton Coalition is based out of the Milton Health Department and is funded by a Drug-Free Communities grant from the CDC. If you have questions about any of these Wotiz Gallery displays, please Email [email protected] or call the Reference Dept. at (617) 898-4964.  The Milton Public Library is located at 476 Canton Avenue, and we encourage you to visit the Wotiz Gallery this November!