The Altamont School will display the full collection of The March Quilts nonprofit arts initiative in a public event Sunday, Oct. 18, 1-3 p.m. The quilts, created by Alabama residents, are colorful, diverse and inspiring reflections about community and the legacy of the Civil Rights Era.
Artist, educator and Altamont alumna Lillis Taylor, a 1998 graduate, organized the exhibit on the school’s Red Mountain campus. The Birmingham native studied industrial design at the University of Washington but also had a class on the Civil Rights Movement that took her deeper into that history than she had ever been.
A local exhibition introduced her to Birmingham photographer Spider Martin’s images of the movement. Another featured the celebrated quilters of Gee’s Bend. “This is from Alabama?” she thought. “How is it possible that I don’t know that?”
For her first job after college, Taylor designed books and toys that were manufactured abroad. At 24, she found herself in China addressing production safety concerns and realized she was on the wrong path…