This Mother’s Day bring the family together to watch the powerful documentary Making the Crystal Quilt. The project featured 430 women from Minnesota, all over the age of 60, who gathered to share their views on growing older. Created by visual artist and social activist Suzanne Lacy, The Crystal Quilt was the culmination of the Whisper Minnesota Project, a three-year public artwork empowering and giving a voice to older women.
The performance was staged in the Crystal Court of downtown Minneapolis’s famed IDS Center on Mother’s Day 1987. The female participants sat together at tables positioned in the shape of a quilt, discussing questions about aging and visibility. At regular intervals, they turned over black tablecloths, revealing a red or yellow backside—much like the unfolding of an enormous quilt.
Over 3,000 people attended the day of the performance, and it was broadcast live on PBS. Lacy described the project as “a case study in reframing notions of older women’s beauty, power, and relevance. Through it we catch glimpses of life patterns and values lost to our generation. The idea was to address the cultural invisibility of older women through art and through action.”
The film will be available for viewing for 24 hours beginning at 4 pm (CDT) May 10, courtesy of Video Data Bank. Making the Crystal Quilt, directed by Suzanne Lacy, 1998, 39 minutes, part of the Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection.
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