The Quilted Conscience Project used quilting as a way to bring people together and unite communities.

The Quilted Conscience Project was on display at KANEKO as a part of the collective exhibition, FIBER.

The Quilted Conscience Project (TQC Project) is an arts education experience that fosters intergenerational and cross-cultural bonds between people who, otherwise, might never meet. The project works with immigrant/refugee children, newly arrived in the United States, and traditional-American communities, here for many generations, who don’t yet know their newest neighbors. It encourages creativity, respect, and friendship. TCQ Project honors the living legacy of Nebraska born-and-raised social justice pioneer Grace Abbott and is guided by Abbott’s words: “Justice for all children is the high ideal in a democracy.”

In The Quilted Conscience project, what started as a documentary film to inform residents of the changing demographics in America has blossomed into a new and unique way to unite communities. Refugee youth in Grand Island were brought together with Nebraska quilters to create images depicting the girls’ memories growing up in their homelands and the dreams they hold of their future in America. Many of the Nebraska quilters, who grew up in rural Nebraska, related to the immigrant girls’ memories of fetching water and helping on a family farm as children. They also remembered sharing many of the same dreams of becoming teachers or working in medicine. Through these quilts, the new and longtime Nebraskans from different cultures and generations realized that they, in fact, have a lot in common with one another. Using quilting as a way to bring people together and unite communities is now taking place in other cities such as Hastings, Lincoln, and Omaha, with beautiful outcomes displayed in Omaha this month.

TQC Project quilts will be on view at these downtown Omaha locations: KANEKO, the Joslyn Art Musuem and the Omaha Public Library W. Dale Clark Branch.

Saturday Van Tours
There will be van tours on Feb. 28, March 14 & 28 and April 11 that visit all of the Quilted Conscience Project sites at KANEKO, the W. Dale Clark Omaha Public Library Branch the Joslyn Art Museum. These Saturday van tours will give people the opportunity to visit each exhibition site in a single day.

Special thanks to all the project partners, including the volunteer quilters, Omaha Public Schools, Nebraska is Home, Lutheran Family Services, Heartland Family Service, Omaha Public Library, The Edith Abbott Memorial Library and others who kindly contributed. The Quilted Conscience is a fund under the Grand Island Community Foundation.

Learn more about the FIBER season by clicking the button below.