Honoring Women Elders: A Mother’s Day Revisitation of The Crystal Quilt by Suzanne Lacy

Screening: Suzanne Lacy’s Making the Crystal Quilt

Online Screening

May 10–11, 2020

“I would like people to feel older women are powerful and beautiful.”
—Suzanne Lacy, Making of the Crystal Quilt (1998)

Mother’s Day is a time to honor the women in our lives who have helped us along the way—moms, of course, but also aunts, friends, or neighbors—especially older women, whose voices have often been ignored in our youth-oriented society. In this spirit of listening and acknowledging the importance of female elders, the Walker will present Suzanne Lacy’s documentary Making of the Crystal Quilt, on Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 10. And since this is a census year as well, there is added importance for women to stand up and be heard.   

The Crystal Quilt, presented on Mother’s Day, May 10, 1987, was created by visual artist and activist Suzanne Lacy as the culmination of her multi-year project on women and aging, Whisper Minnesota (1985–1987). Sponsored by the Humphrey Institute, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and the Minnesota Council on Aging, the project brought hundreds of women together across the state from all different backgrounds to discuss and workshop ideas on social attitudes towards older women.

After many hours of planning and rehearsing, 430 women over the age of 60 gathered in the Crystal Court of the IDS Center  in downtown Minneapolis to participate in the performance art event. “I chose the IDS Crystal Court because it seems like the symbolic heart of the city,” Lacy says in her 1998 documentary, Making of the Crystal Quilt. “And it seemed like [the] place to make the announcement that older women could be participants.”

Seated under a quilt designed by Miriam Schapiro at tables set with cloths of bold red, yellow, and black, the women created shapes and colors with their hands. Choreographed by Sage Cowles, these movements were synched to a sound piece by Susan Stone, made from their voices discussing life as older women. Three thousand spectators gathered on the balconies above the courtyard to witness the event. By all accounts it was a touching, heartwarming, and solemn experience. “I don’t think the older performing women knew what performance art was,” recalls photographer Linda Gammell, “but one can tell in the photographs, and I could tell, that it was taken most seriously, most ceremonially.”

The participants touched the lives of many women present that day.  For Whisper Minnesota project photographer Terry Gydesen, the event was particularly poignant. “I was switching careers at that point in my life and was afraid I was ‘too old’ at 32,” she recalls. “I was so inspired by the women who were featured in the performance. Many had gone back to school who were over 60.”

At the conclusion of the performance, the participating women raised their hands and cheered as audience members filled the courtyard and presented the women with colorful scarves designed by Julie Arnoff, breaking the solid pattern of the living quilt into many splashes of color. It was a joyous end to a touching event.

Gammel recalls, “I felt that my grandmothers were there, that symbolically I heard their stories as well. ”

Were you there? Let us know your thoughts and memories of that day. You can send your remembrances to: library.archives@walkerart.org.

The Crystal Quilt was created, produced, and directed by Suzanne Lacy, with participating artists Nancy Dennis, Sharon Anderson, Phyllis Jane Rose, Phyllis Salzberg, and Judy Kepes. Quilt design by Miriam Schapiro, scarves by Julie Arnoff, soundtrack by Susan Stone, choreography by Sage Cowles, and PBS live broadcast produced by Emily Goldberg. It was sponsored by the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD), the Humphrey Institute for Public Affairs Reflective Leadership Program, KTCA Public Television, and the Minnesota Board of Aging, with cooperation from the Walker Art Center and At the Foot of the Mountain Theater.