Responses to Tragedy Become Patchwork for Quilt

Last year, in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, Smith’s Staff Council invited members of the community to record their thoughts and responses on strips of cloth. The pieces of fabric, collectively titled “Cut From the Same Cloth,” were then affixed to the construction fence surrounding the Brown Fine Arts Center as an exhibition in the Art on the Fence project.

When the exhibition was removed on September 25, 2001, following its scheduled run, the project didn’t end there.

Seeking to preserve the expressions inscribed on the cloth strips, the exhibition planners enlisted the help of Smith staff members in the theatre department and other areas to transform the strips into a quilt.

“When we were removing the strips from the fence and reading each response, we knew the importance of what had been expressed and sought an opportunity to share it with the Smith community,” says Stacey Anasazi, budget and accounting coordinator in the Museum of Art and a member of the committee that produced “Cut From the Same Cloth.” “By the fashion of quilting, we reunited our thoughts and feelings related to the events of 9/11.”

The quilt depicts the twin towers of the World Trade Center, surrounded by comments by Smith participants in “Cut From the Same Cloth.”

Through September 15, as part of the Smith community’s commemoration of the events of September 11, 2001, the quilt will be on display on the first floor of Neilson Library. A journal will accompany the quilt in which the Staff Council invites the Smith community to respond to the following: How has your life been impacted since 9/11? How has your sense of community changed during the last year? And, what are the best and worst aspects of our community?

On Wednesday, September 11, the Staff Council invites the Smith community to gather at 2 p.m. by the quilt to remember the events and those who have suffered following last year’s tragedy.

A Staff Council meeting will follow the gathering, at 2:15 p.m. in the Kahn Colloquium Room on the third floor of Neilson. Members of the Smith community are encouraged to attend.