Like the pieces of a quilt, our experiences, realities, oppressions, and ultimate liberation are bound together. This community quilt project aims to act as a process-based physical archive of the ways in which community members of Middlebury College interact with feminist issues. The workshops to create this mosaic of feminist experience are grounded in personal exploration across a variety of themes (race, sexuality, reproductive landscape, collective care, building futures, gendered violence, borders, surveillance, climate and the body, anti-war action, etc.), followed by the act of creating in community.
Why is this project important?
Now, more than ever, community must be a priority! Coming together to slow down, process, and use our hands is one step we can take to envision and build the future we want. By creating an archive of experience and thought in relation to current events, political climate, grief on campus, and threats against our communities and neighbors, we refuse to be erased and disappeared. The physical archive of a quilt further cements this in its materiality. It takes up space. It grows with every square added. And it can hold us, wrapped around our shoulders, like we must hold each other.
This project was started in October of 2025 by Harper Nichols, the director of the Feminist Resource Center at Chellis House. To host a workshop for your organization, class, or program, or for more information on getting involved in this project, please email Harper at mharper@middlebury.edu.