On Thursday 3rd July I gave a talk at the Quilters' Guild of SA about the history of "Dare to Differ" a contemporary quilt exhibition held in Adelaide every two years which I conven.
Below is the 'speech' that I gave on the night.
Amazing concepts
Wonderful skill and imagination
Exciting, inspiring, witty
Great stuff
These were some of the comments recorded
about the Guild’s first “Dare to Differ” held at Megaw and Hogg in June, 1994
as part of the celebration of the tenth year of the Quilters’ Guild of SA Inc.
“Dare to Differ” was the idea of a small
group of Guild members interested in promoting and exhibiting contemporary
quilt in our state, South Australia. The model for this was the New South Wales
Quilters’ Guild juried exhibition held at the Manly Art Gallery, which has
become a prestigious showcase for contemporary art quilting nation-wide. The
exhibition was open to all quiltmakers of the Quilters’ Guild of SA and
attracted a pleasing response from city and country members. The quilts
displayed showed a great variety of interests and techniques.
Committee members were Barbara Hutton, Neta
Lewis, Gennie Quinn, Pat Hagan, Deb Nichol, Lyn Uppill, and Quenby Sinclair.
Many of these names you will recognize.
It
was then decided to hold this event biannually.
The aims of Dare to Differ were (and still
are):
To educate the public about contemporary
quilts
To raise the awareness of the value of
textiles in Visual Arts
To showcase Contemporary Australian Quilts
makers
And to encourage SA Quilt makers to be
further innovative and daring
The next exhibition was held at the David
Jones Gallery in the Adelaide.
In 1997 we saw a move to Prospect Gallery.
The theme was “Over the Top”. The title was to steer people away from the
traditional quilt and extend their horizons, leaning more to the visual
arts. In 1999 the theme was “99 Not Out”
and at this time the committee extended the participation to quilters across
Australia. This was to showcase the breath and width of what was happening in
the contemporary quilt scene throughout Australia. This also gave the South
Australian audience an opportunity to see this wonderful broad showcase of
contemporary quilts.
In 2001 it was decided that the theme would
be dropped and the exhibition title was to remain as
“Dare to Differ”. This is as it is still
today.
The exhibition continued at Prospect
Gallery for a few more years and then was moved to Gallery M where it has
continued until now. This is a larger venue and has showcased the quilts
So this next year 2015 will be its 21st
year.
Over the years many SA quiltmakers have
exhibited: Alvena Hall has been in every show, I was in the very first show and
have been in most of the exhibitions since, Julie Haddrick has been in many and
many other SA quilters have
joined the participants from every other state in Australia throughout the
years. The quality and number of works has grown throughout the years and I
feel that it is an excellent show and encourage all to enter in for the 2015
show. The Dare to Differ – 2015 will be the 21st year so lets make
it the best yet!!
I have been convenor for many of those years (I think
about 15) and now feel it is time to pass the role onto to other people so I am
resigning from my role after the 2015 Dare to Differ and wish to ask for those
who would like to see this exhibition continue to see me about how they could
be involved.
So if you wish to be involved in the next "Dare to Differ - 2015" contact me through my email: suzannegummow@bigpond.com
Below are photos from the night
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| Myself, talking with a quilt of mine that was in DAre to Differ many years ago |
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| Julie Haddrick talking about fher quilts shown above |
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| Myself presenting my speech with a slideshow of previous exhibitions and quilts |
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| This quilt was made by Jenny Greenwell (pictured here) in the very first DAre to Differ in 1995 |
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| Quilts displayed and view of slideshow on the night |
