Kimberley Pierce Cartwright, RCWMS’ current artist in residence, is our Conference Director for Kindred Spirits: A Convergence of African American Quilters. She envisions it as a time of sisterhood, exploration, and fun. Scheduled for June 15-17, 2023, in Durham, NC, the conference has attracted some of the top quilting professionals in the country.
Kimberley’s quilt work represents an abstraction of real life. She began quilting and painting in the summer of 2006. Her work evokes emotion through her distinctive use of color. Kimberley specializes in small quilt fabric postcards. Her work includes abstract caricatures, acrylic paintings, mixed media embellishments, and clay. She also creates dolls and works on paper and canvas. Her love of color punctuates her use of very simple designs.
She says of her work, “I have the power to create art in my life. I do that through my quilting. Sometimes I plan what I will do and sometimes I don’t. The result is always something I love. Everyone has the same power to create art in their own unique way.”
Kimberly has shown her work locally and around the state. Due to the pandemic, her 2020 quilt exhibit, Faith, was presented virtually on the North Carolina Central University (NCCU) Art Museum’s website and is still available for viewing online. Her work was included in Reckoning and Resilience: North Carolina Art Now, a 2022 exhibition at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Her work has also been featured in the international magazines Quilt Folk, Quilting Arts, and Quilt Mania.
Kimberley holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Shaw University in Radio Television and Film. She also earned a Master of Arts in Public Affairs Reporting from the University of Illinois at Springfield. She is the News and Public Affairs Director of WNCU at NCCU in Durham. She’s a member of the African American Quilt Circle of Durham and has taught classes in quilting and sewing. Her teaching style is warm and welcoming, and her art is brilliant, intricate, and timely.
We are excited to welcome Kimberley’s expansive and vibrant quilting community to Durham in June for the conference. If you are a quilter of African descent, please sign up for the conference. The public is welcome to view the attendees’ quilts on Friday, June 16.
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