Paducah School of Art and Design Announces Australia Wide Five

Free Opening Reception September 13

PADUCAH, KY (09/01/2017) Paducah School of Art and Design (PSAD) is pleased to announce Australia Wide Five, an exhibition of 39 art quilts from makers in OZQUILT NETWORK INC, an association of art quilters from throughout Australia. The exhibition opens with a free opening reception September 14.

Australia Wide Five is PSAD's second sanctioned collaboration with the American Quilter's Society (AQS) during its internationally renowned QuiltWeek in Paducah, and which is for the first time presenting a Fall QuiltWeek (September 13-16).

The public reception will be hosted between 5­-7 p.m., in the Bill Ford Gallery within PSAD's 2D and Graphic Design Building at 905 Harrison Street. The exhibition is free and open to the public, and runs from September 13 - September 29. Throughout the duration of Fall QuiltWeek, PSAD and Australia Wide Five are included as a stop on the bus tour of AQS activities. Attendees should access the building through the public entry on Harrison Street.

The art quilts in the Australia Wide Five show a wide variety of design and techniques reflective of contemporary quilt making. Some are inspired by the Australian landscape, others by the pursuit of security, prosperity and community. Some are conventionally representational and pictorial, some capitalize on the other traditions of pattern and abstraction within the visual vocabulary of quilting.

"PSAD is delighted to be participating as an exhibition venue during the AQS's first Fall QuiltWeek in Paducah," said PSAD Dean Paul Aho. "We had a successful first experience in AQS' Spring QuiltWeek, presenting a European quilt exhibition in the Bill Ford Gallery. We are pleased to host another show with international dimensions," said Aho.

The exhibition will also be on display through the September UNESCO Creative Cities of Craft and Folk Art annual meeting in Paducah, as well as during the second annual Paducah Fall Fiber Festival.

"The exhibition complements the development of our new fiber arts studio and community education programs at PSAD," Aho added, "and it will be accompanied by an exhibition upstairs in the PJC Gallery of work by our new fiber artist-in-residence, Lexie Johnson."

Gallery hours for the Bill Ford Gallery during Fall QuiltWeek are Thursday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Paducah School of Art and Design, a division of West Kentucky Community and Technical College, offers an Associate in Fine Arts degree in Visual Art and an Associate in Applied Science degree and certificate programs in Visual Communication: Multimedia, as well as studio art classes for students of all levels and disciplines. Classes are offered on WKCTC's campus, 905 Harrison Street and 919 Madison Street.

For more information, call (270) 534.3901.

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West Kentucky Community and Technical College (WKCTC) has been recognized four-consecutive times by The Aspen Institute as one of the top 10 community colleges in the nation for providing students with strong job training and continuing higher education opportunity, for achieving high completion and transfer rates, and for providing strong employment results for its graduates.