MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

2000 Regular Session

To: Rules

By: Representative Middleton

A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION COMMENDING THE CROSSROADS QUILTERS UPON RECEIVING THE 2000 GOVERNOR'S AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE IN THE ARTS HERITAGE AWARD.

WHEREAS, the Crossroads Quilters will receive the 2000 Governor's Awards for Excellence in the Arts Heritage Award on March 17, 2000; and

WHEREAS, the Governor's Awards for Excellence in the Arts is a program coordinated by the Mississippi Arts Commission and hosted by Governor and Mrs. Ronnie Musgrove; and

WHEREAS, the Crossroads Quilters is a group of women, most of them African-Americans, who have banded together to nurture, extend and promote Mississippi's heritage of traditional quilting; and

WHEREAS, the Crossroads Quilters grew out of efforts by Mississippi Cultural Crossroads, a local arts agency in Claiborne County, to revitalize the traditional craft of quilting and create a wider appreciation for this important cultural heritage; and

WHEREAS, the Crossroads Quilters celebrate the traditional heritage of quilting of their community while creating educational and economic opportunities for its citizens; and

WHEREAS, each quilter is a craftsperson in her own right, making the myriad decisions about material, design, color, technique and spirit that mark each quilt as the unique product of a vision that is both individual and shared; and

WHEREAS, having received numerous awards, Crossroads Quilters was selected to demonstrate traditional quilting for two weeks at the Smithsonian Institution's 1996 Festival of American Folklife, at the 1996 Cultural Olympiad in Centennial Park in Atlanta, at the 1996 annual convention of the National Association of Local Arts Agencies in St. Louis and at a 1999 international fabric art symposium, "Common Threads: Creating a Cloth for Empowerment" at the Smithsonian Institution; and

WHEREAS, the Southern Arts Federation is currently circulating to museums in nine southern states, as part of its Southern Visions program, an exhibit of 15 quilts and 15 photographs titled "Crossroads Quilters: Stitching the Community Together":

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, THE SENATE CONCURRING THEREIN, That we do hereby commend the Crossroads Quilters upon receiving the 2000 Governor's Awards for Excellence in the Arts Heritage Award.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be furnished to the Crossroads Quilters and to the members of the Capitol Press Corps.