Our programs include classes and workshops that focus on the digital and technical skills students need to succeed in the creative workforce.
Oakwood Arts' East End Quilt Collective explores and celebrates the history of our neighborhood and East End Cemetery using art and technology.
The Project
Over the next year, we will host a series of multigenerational community programs centered on East End Cemetery, a historic African American burial ground just minutes from Oakwood Arts and the surrounding East End neighborhood. These will include tours, presentations, and workshops and will culminate in the creation and exhibition of a large-scale collaborative art piece: a quilt of handmade cyanotype images representing East End's rich legacy.
Research for the project will be conducted under the guidance of the Friends of East End, a group of volunteers who have spent years reclaiming the historic cemetery from nature and documenting the community at rest there. Images discovered in sources such as the Richmond Planet, the African American newspaper of record from the 1880s through the 1930s, will be used to print more detailed, photorealistic cyanotypes of people and places tied to the cemetery. These cyanotypes, along with those made using flora collected at East End, and written reflections shared by volunteers, will be sewn together to create the final quilted project.
Our Collaborators
Oakwood Arts is collaborating with Brian Palmer and Erin Hollaway Palmer, professional journalists and founding members of the Friends of East End Cemetery for this project, who will begin guiding program participants through the history and sociopolitical terrain of the cemetery.
Unicia Buster, a textile artist and graphic designer, is also working alongside us to oversee the production and assembly of the quilt.
UPCOMING EVENTS
We are gearing up for our Fall East End Quilt Collective events — stay tuned!
Friends of East End continues to hold cemetery clean-ups every Saturday from 9am-12pm. Check here to get involved with upcoming clean-up days!
Want to be involved in the quilt collective? We’d love your support. Please contact alex@oakwoodarts.org
Past events
Cyanotype Session with University of Richmond
November 21st, 2019
We taught archeology students at University of Richmond how to make cyanotypes. They conceptualized their semester long projects focused on East End Cemetery into visual imagery using cyanotype quilt squares. They used illustration, plant life, artifacts found at East End Cemetery, historical images, and photos they took on site!
VCU Health Hub Open House
Saturday November 9th, 2019 11am
We had a booth at the VCU Health Hub Open House at 25th to spread the word about the East End Quilt Collective!
Celebration with Friends of East End
Saturday November 2nd, 2019
We had a phenomenal time celebrating with our friends and collaborators Friends of East End and their State Farm Neighborhood Assist grant! Stay tuned for their oral histories project coming soon.
Cyanotyping Session at East End Cemetery:
Saturday October 19th, 2019
We met up with Friends of East End, the National Park Service, archaeology students from University of Richmond, for another wonderful work day. The great turn out also included Ajena Rogers, a park ranger at Maggie Walker National Historic Site, and the wonderful volunteers from MEPI Tomorrow’s Leaders program that gathers young learners from the Middle East and North Africa for four years to be active change makers in their community. We are so thankful for everyone’s help!
Cosmologies from the Tree of Life: Art from the African American South Field Trip
Saturday September 14th, 2019 at 1:00 PM
Our East End Quilt Collective group met up at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts to view the Cosmologies from the Tree of Life: Art from the African American South Exhibit where we saw the impressive selection of quilts displaying the unique artistry of the famed multigenerational group of quilt-making women in Gee’s Bend, Alabama.
Join us Saturday Sept 14th for a group viewing of the Cosmologies from the Tree of Life exhibit up at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Read more about the exhibition here.
Cyanotyping Session at PPDC:
Thursday August 15th, 2019 at 11 AM – 3 PM
We ran into some old friends and met some new ones at our #EEQuiltCollective cyanotyping session as a part of @peterpaulrva’s East End Community Field Day! Using digital negatives and plant life from #EastEndCemetery, families created sun-printed quilt squares and helped design patterns for our community quilt celebrating the rich history of Richmond’s East End.
Join us at Peter Paul Development Center’s Community Field Day to make a fabric sun print to add to our collaborative community quilt celebrating the history of Richmond’s East End Cemetery! Free to all ages!
Cyanotyping Session at East End Cemetery:
Saturday, June 29th, 2019 at 9 AM – 12:30 PM
On Saturday, Friends of East End, Oakwood Arts, and few other members worked together to tame the summer overgrowth at East End Cemetery as well as participate in our East End Quilt Collective Project, by creating a unique sun-printed quilt square!
Join us at 50 Evergreen Rd and make a fabric sun print to add to our collaborative community quilt celebrating the history of Richmond’s East End Cemetery! Free to all ages!
Cyanotype Session at East End Cemetery:
Saturday, June 15th, 2019 at 9 AM – 12:30 PM
One Saturday Friends of East End, Oakwood Arts, and few members from worked together to tame the summer overgrowth at East End Cemetery as well as participate in our East End Quilt Collective Project, by creating a unique sun-printed quilt square to be added to our collaborative community quilt celebrating the history of Richmond’s East End!
Join us at 50 Evergreen Rd and make a fabric sun print to add to our collaborative community quilt celebrating the history of Richmond’s East End Cemetery! Free to all ages!
Reflection at East End Cemetery:
Saturday, March 9, 2019 at 9 AM – 12:30 PM
On Saturday Friends of East End, Oakwood Arts, the National Association of Black Social Workers, veterans from the Wounded Warrior Project as well as Hermitage High School students gathered at the East End Cemetery to clean up this historic burial ground. Thank you to everyone who came out to the @friendsofeastend clean-up and for sharing your thoughts about your experience with us! #eequiltcollective.
Join Oakwood Arts at the Friends of East End Cemetery clean up for refreshments, engaging discussions, and an immersive photography activity highlighting stories and experiences related to the cemetery. With permission, we will use participants’ quotes and photographs to create a community quilt, showcasing the complexities of history, challenges of the present, and insight for the future.
Reflection at East End Cemetery:
Saturday, February 16, 2019 at 9 AM – 12:30 PM
Join Oakwood Arts at the Friends of East End Cemetery clean up for refreshments, engaging discussions, and an immersive photography activity highlighting stories and experiences related to the cemetery. With permission, we will use participants’ quotes and photographs to create a community quilt, showcasing the complexities of history, challenges of the present, and insight for the future. CANCELED DUE TO WEATHER
Cyanotyping Session at East End Cemetery:
Saturday, November 17, 2018 from 9 AM – 12:00 PM
Volunteers including VCU students and community members came out on Saturday to participate in a productive @friendsofeastend clean-up day. Volunteers and others made cyanotypes from things found at East End to be included in our collaborative community quilt.
Come out to 50 Evergreen Rd and make a fabric sun print to add to our collaborative community quilt celebrating the history of Richmond’s East End Cemetery! There will be a walk and talk at 10:30am with Erin Hollaway Palmer from Friends of East End. Free to all ages!
Cyanotyping Session at East End Cemetery:
Saturday, October 20, 2018 from 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
CANCELED DUE TO WEATHER
East End Quilt Collective: Peter Paul Field Day
October 6, 2018
Oakwood Arts spent the morning at the Peter Paul Development Center’s Community Field Day! Students and their families stopped by our table to design a quilt square as part of our ongoing collaborative quilt project.
Cyanotyping Session at East End Cemetery:
August 18, 2018
Oakwood Arts hosted a cyanotype workshop at East End Cemetery, involving both the creation of fabric cyanotype quilt squares as well as some clean-up and restoration of the surrounding areas alongside Friends of East End. The quilt squares made at this event and at future workshops will ultimately serve as material for a community-made collaborative quilt.
East End Quilt Collective: First Informational Meeting
August 14, 2018
This was the first of a series of conversations about East End Cemetery, the community it served, and the years-long effort to restore it. Founded in 1897, East End is the final resting place of thousands of African American Richmonders. The first talk, by restoration volunteer and advocate Erin Hollaway Palmer, highlighted the history of the cemetery, the forces that contributed to its decline, and the people working to reclaim it from nature and neglect. We also introduced our own arts-based approach to the restoration and commemoration of this vital community site.
sponsored in part by the Cultural Equity Grant
