What is Performance Patchwork?

It’s a unique series of free programs for children ages 9 to 12 that incorporates historical fiction writing, art, drama, and American history. Performance Patchwork features three tours of the Mint Museum, one tour of the Levine Museum, and a performance of the participants' written work on the Page Stage at ImaginOn. The programs, speakers, and performers are sponsored by the Mint Museum of Craft and Design, Spangler Library at ImaginOn, the Levine Museum of the New South, and the Charlotte Museum of History.

What's involved?

We'll make three visits to the Mint Museum of Craft and Design to see their American Quilt Classics: 1800 to 1980 exhibit. While we're there, we'll focus on a couple of quilts, learn how they were constructed, and learn what it was like to live in the time period. Our first meeting will also include a visit to the Levine Museum of the New South to see their Cotton Fields to Skyscrapers exhibit. There we'll see what everyday life was like for a cotton sharecropper family and child laborers in textile mills.

After each of the three visits, kids (and interested adult caregivers) will spend time in the museum writing historical fiction stories about people who were connected to the quilts. The stories they write will then be quilted together to form a script which will be performed for the public on ImaginOn's Page Stage.

When will this be offered?

The three tours/writing sessions will be offered from 2:30 to 4:30 every three weeks as follows:

• Saturday, September 26
  Era covered: 1800-1850
  Principal speaker: Teresa Cain, ImaginOn
  
  
• Saturday, October 17
  Era covered: 1850-1900
  Principal speaker: Angelica Docog, Charlotte Museum of History
  
  
• Saturday, November 7
  Era covered: 1900-1950
  Principal speaker: Leslie Strauss, Mint Museum of Craft and Design

The performance will be offered on the Page Stage at ImaginOn on Tuesday, November 11.

Who can participate?

This program is only for kids age 9-12 who are accompanied by an adult caregiver. Sorry, but we will not be able to accommodate children under 9, even siblings of children who are registered.

Tell me more about the organizations who are sponsoring this.

Check out our websites to learn more about each of organizations and the exhibits you'll be seeing:

The Mint Museum of Craft and Design:
http://www.mintmuseum.org/

ImaginOn/PLCMC :
http://www.imaginon.org/index.asp

Levine Museum of the New South:
http://www.museumofthenewsouth.org/

The Charlotte Museum of History:
http://www.charlottemuseum.org/

Is registration required for the tours/writing sessions?

Yes. To register, call ImaginOn’s Spangler Library at 704-416-4630. We’ll accept registrations for each of the tours separately, beginning two weeks before each tour.

Registration is not required for the performance on November 11.