Tacoma Art Museum received a Humanities Washington Fall 2007 Project Grant in support of a new podcast featuring the Pacific Northwest African American Quilters (PNAAQ). The podcast is in conjunction with the upcoming partnership project Threads that Bind: Works by the Pacific Northwest African American Quilters, on view December 18, 2007 through February 18, 2008.

The Threads that Bind podcast will feature a series of one-on-one interviews with the quilters about the role quilting has played in their lives and communities. Early chapters of the podcast are slated for release in January, with the remaining segments completed in time for Black History Month. The interviews will consider topics such as how did the tradition of quilting and programs like the Freedom Quilting Bee that came out of the Civil Rights movement served to build community among African-American women? What role does quilting have in building and strengthening intergenerational family ties, given that quilts are typically created in the home and the skills are passed down through generations? What role does spirituality play in all of this?

The podcast also complements the PNAAQ artist-in-residence series in Tacoma Art Museum’s M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust Open Art Studio in January and February while Threads that Bind is on view in the galleries. As the quilters help visitors created quilt squares for inclusion in the community quilt, the resulting conversations will be added to the podcast.

Podcast subscription information, as well as individual audio files, will be available via the museum’s Web site at www.TacomaArtMuseum.org, and in Tacoma Art Museum’s Bill and Melinda Gates Art Resource Center after the February release.

Podcast subscription information, as well as individual audio files, will be available via the museum’s Web site at www.TacomaArtMuseum.org.