Charles Crane/MDN The 150-inch quilt made in part by students and collaborators with the Social Justice Sewing Academy is shown in its display at the Taube Museum of Art in Minot.

A quilt made by students and artists around the country has found a display venue in Minot after missing out on being exhibited at a local quilt festival, causing confusion and controversy.

Like many other Americans in March 2020, local Minot quilter Debbie Kauffman found herself with some time on her hands. While she said she enjoyed being free to give more time to her hobby, she still felt compelled to find some way to help others while she was cooped up.

Soon after, she discovered the organization Social Justice Sewing Academy, which provides textiles workshops and educational programming to provide young people with access to training and materials. Kauffman became a member of the SJSA’s round robin network of seamstresses, quilters, embroiders and vendors, her specialty being long-arm quilting.

These disparate individuals continued their work on various projects beyond 2020 despite pandemic restrictions loosening, including the recent completion of a massive quilt. The project began with designs created by students in elementary through high school, with their art taken and fashioned by quilters in California, who handed it off to an army of embroiders and finishers around the country.

The quilt is covered with panels of imagery and calls for activism, memorials for the victims of police brutality and other issues on the mind of young people around the country. Kauffman hoped to exhibit it at the 2023 edition of the Minot Prairie Quilt Festival that took place on March 16.

“I was proud of the work. I was sick with COVID when I worked on it. I wanted people to see what can happen when we work together,” Kauffman said. “It’s the size of two queen-size quilts. There’s a lot of emotion that comes from seeing what those kids are saying.”

These best laid plans were undone by weather delaying shipment, trapping the quilt first in Utah and then Billings, Montana. Kauffman hoped there would be some grace, considering the weather the region had experienced at the time, but was told that the quilt had not been dropped off before the March 14 deadline. Instead, she was told, the quilt would be critiqued by the festival’s national quilt judge and still be displayed despite not being an official entry. However, after stopping back later, Kauffman discovered the academy’s quilt had not been displayed.

“I went to the show to drop off something before it opened on Thursday and accidentally walked past someone who let me know that there wasn’t room,” Kauffman said. “People commented they wanted to find a place to hang it and that they would see what they could do.”

Later during the show, Kauffman went to pick up a second quilt she had submitted and found the academy’s quilt still had not been displayed. After speaking with a festival organizer, Kauffman said, she was told her second quilt could be displayed without issue, but the academy’s quilt could not.

“It’s difficult. I don’t want to cause trouble, but this was a massive collaborative effort. I can’t sit by and not say something,” Kauffman said.

The omission of the SJSA’s quilt caused an outcry online, leading the festival to release a statement explaining that there were several factors involved in the quilt’s removal from the festival display. The primary reason was the quilt’s late submission. Festival organizers say the festival’s guidelines require that all entries be delivered by 3 p.m. the Tuesday before the show, explicitly noting that late entries would not be accepted. While organizers had thought there would be room for the 150-inch-wide quilt, it was eventually determined that it would leave some of the 135 judged quilts without space themselves.

“The decision was made to remove the late-arrival quilt, which was only critiqued, to hang all 135 judge quilts. It has been indicated that we did not value the voice of these children. But in removing this powerful piece of art, we were able to now have room to hang the youth division quilts as well as remaining judge quilts that were submitted in a timely manner,” the festival’s statement concluded.

While Kauffman and others still had questions in the aftermath, another venue materialized to put the project on display.

After hearing of the situation, the Taube Museum of Art worked to shift around its displays to accommodate the quilt and provide the public the opportunity to view it. Two artists with works currently being displayed agreed to relocate their pieces, allowing the academy’s quilt to occupy an entire corner of the museum. The quilt will be displayed until the conclusion of the gallery’s run at the end of the month.