Deadline Extended: Blanket Drive

Give your blanket, share your story, and be part of artist Marie Watt’s Blanket Stories installation

The Rockwell Museum and artist Marie Watt invite you to submit a blanket that will become part of a monumental new sculpture at the Museum. Watt is requesting contributions of blankets, quilts, afghans, or blanket-like cloth, in any condition. Drop off your blanket and/or story by February 15, 2017.

The blankets will create a Blanket Stories sculpture — a 14-foot totem of the personal stories and histories of the Steuben County and greater New York community. The sculpture will become a dynamic part of the Museum’s permanent collection. It will also be on view as part of an upcoming exhibition ‘Western Door’, which opens May 5, 2017.

What is a blanket story? Artist Marie Watt explains:

“Blankets are everyday objects. We take them for granted, yet as we use them, they quietly record our histories: a lumpy shape, a worn binding, mended patches. Every blanket holds a story. In the secondhand and thrift-store blankets I use in much of my work, I can only guess at the story. But when I can work with contributed blankets, I ask each contributor to record the blanket’s story (or the contributor’s story as it relates to the blanket) on a tag. These stories remain with the blankets in their installations, and are also transcribed and collected, so that others can share them.”

Now Accepting Blankets

Submit your blanket story to the project by dropping it off at The Rockwell Museum through November 30.

Blanket Story Towers

Your blanket will become part of a Blanket Stories sculpture by Marie Watt— a 14 foot totem of the personal stories and histories of the Steuben County and greater New York community. The sculpture will become part of The Rockwell’s permanent collection and will be on view in the upcoming exhibition entitled Western Door which opens May 5, 2017. Pictured here, installations by Marie Watt at the Denver Art Museum (left) and Canadian National Gallery (right).

Blanket Stories

You are invited to write your blanket story on a tag, which will be attached to the blankets. Stories will also be available to view on a unique digital archive.

Artist Marie Watt

Marie Watt (b. 1967) is an American artist. Her work draws from history, biography, Iroquois proto-feminism, and indigenous principles, and addresses the interaction of the arc of history with the intimacy of memory.

How to Participate

• Bring a blanket and drop it off to The Rockwell Museum by February 15, 2017 (new deadline!). Blankets, quilts, afghans, or blanket-like cloth, in any condition, will be accepted. 
• Write the story of your blanket on the provided tag (pick up tags at The Rockwell)  – the tag will be attached to your blanket and become part of the installation as well.
• If your blanket is too treasured to part with, no problem! Please submit just the story of the blanket on the provided tags – it will be attached to a “proxy” blanket in the installation.
• In exchange for your contribution, you will receive a small, limited-edition screen print by Marie Watt.
• Your blanket will be stacked among the others blankets to create a skyward-reaching community Blanket Story column for the exhibition opening May 5, 2017.

Learn more about the exhibit and artist Marie Watt