New and Noteworthy

The Stevens County DAC Barn Quilt

Colorful barn quilt created by first-year students, displayed at the Stevens County Developmental Achievement Center.

First-year students in Professor Julia Dabbs’s intellectual community art history course have created barn quilts for three non-profit organizations in Morris. 

Barn quilts are large, decorative quilt blocks painted on wood and displayed on the exterior of buildings such as barns and tell the story of the site where they hang.  

Dabbs says the course title, “Art + History, UMM+Community,” sums up the goal of connecting with the community in a meaningful way.  

“Working with the Clifford J. Benson Center for Community Partnerships, we selected three community organizations–the Morris Public Library, the Stevens County Historical Museum, and the Stevens County DAC–as part of the theme of lifelong learning.” 

The students researched the symbolism of barn quilts, took field trips and spent time volunteering at the organizations, then selected which partner organization interested them the most.  

After dividing into three groups, they created a design to represent the organization.  

“The groups each had to write a proposal for their barn quilt, which was presented to the partner organization,” Dabbs explained.  

The barn quilt created by UMN Morris students for the Stevens County DAC. Riley Johnson ’27, Dawson, is an art history major, but had never heard of barn quilts before taking the class.  

“Our design has a sun in the center to represent how the DAC is the center force for its clients.  We used colors from the disability pride flag, and a ‘twisted tile’ pattern to show how the DAC and the community are interwoven.” 

Lily Chamoun ’26, Fergus Falls, also worked on the design for the DAC. She is an elementary education major and was drawn to the class because of the community engagement.  She, too, admitted she had never heard of a barn quilt, but was intrigued by this form of public art.    

“What I like about art is that you can say a lot, without words. There is so much symbolism in a barn quilt. I’ve never been into quilting, but this is a kind of quilting that I can do.” 

Chamoun also appreciated learning about the DAC and how their work impacts the community. “It was really special to visit with them and hear what they stand for and their heart for the community.” Both Johnson and Chamoun said creating art as a group project was a new experience and they’re pleased with how their barn quilt turned out. “This is something that I did that will have a lasting impression on the community,” Johnson said.  

Article compliments of Sue Dieter



Colorful barn quilt created by first-year students, displayed at Stevens County Developmental Achievement Center.

Developmental Achievement Center Barn Quilt Artists’ Statement

Until about the 1950s, if someone was born with mental or physical disabilities they were sure to be institutionalized. This was a horrific period of history, and society has progressed immensely since then. One invention in particular was Developmental Achievement Centers (DAC): a place where such disabled people can work on their career and everyday skills and be able to thrive in the community like any other person. For over 40 years now, the DAC has been helping disabled people to gain career and everyday skills that they can use to be active members of the community. For the Service-Learning Experience in Art History class (ARTH 1803) taught by Julia Dabbs, the DAC group was tasked to create a barn quilt to give to the Stevens County DAC in order to give back to this community. The group volunteered in the DAC (with the help of Argie Manolis) and each individual found themselves charmed by the friendship, community, and passion exhibited by everyone there. We want more than anything else to be able to give back to the DAC and make the building more inviting by making a barn quilt to be displayed in front of the building.

For this barn quilt, the group put a lot of thought into the symbolism. In our initial visit to the DAC, the program director, John Luetmer told a story about a client. During the COVID-19 pandemic when the building had to be closed, he lost his will to get up in the morning. His routine was so disrupted that it affected his life in a drastic way. We thought that we would honor this client by depicting the DAC as a place of warmth and growth that empowers people to get up in the morning. Secondly, barn quilt artist Cindy Haffner identified one of our design elements as a Twisted Tiles pattern, meaning two squares interlocked and weaving together. This, though originally picked purely on aesthetics, soon came to hold a deeper meaning of community. It shows how tightly woven the relationships between everyone at the DAC are. Additionally, they are woven around this central force of light: the sun.

All of this considered, the colors also play a big part in the design. One member of our group, Marin Westrum, discovered a pride flag for people with disabilities. Originally, we tried to tie the symbolism on the flag into the design, but after feedback opted to simply represent this flag via the colors. They include: green (sensory perception/processing disabilities), red (physical disabilities), white (invisible disabilities), yellow (cognitive and intellectual disabilities), blue (mental illness), and black (in honor of those who have lost their lives due to their disability, whether it be the natural progression of the disability or due to neglect, abuse, suicide, or other reasons). Though these colors don’t hold much meaning specific to the DAC, we thought that the disability pride flag would convey the same kinds of things we wanted to. We decided to tie in the DAC specifically by adding a maroon border, which matches the color of the building. The colors put together honor all the types of people who spend their days at the DAC, as well as those who are no longer with us. It’s simple but effective.

The barn quilt, when finished, will be 3 feet by 3 feet big and sit on posts close to the road. The bright colors will draw attention to the DAC (which by itself is neutral brown) and depict it as a happier “brighter” place. Plus, some in the class said that this color combination reminded them of superheroes, which has a ton of appeal symbolically (strength, kindness, joy, etc). People will definitely be intrigued by it, and when learning of the deeper symbolism the barn quilt will just gain more love and appreciation for the building it represents. The DAC has made a difference in all of our lives in one way or another, and it was a pleasure to be able to make this barn quilt for the community.

Sources

Design and barn quilt created by the following students in Julia Dabbs’ “Art + History, UMM + Community Course,” Fall 2023:  Lily Chamoun; Riley Johnson;  Caroline Stenstrom; and Marin Westrum