LEWISTON — LA Arts will host an exhibition of “KindSpring,” a quilt created by local Green Dot LA members in support and celebration of the Green Dot bystander intervention program, designed to help reduce threats and violence in the Twin Cities. The quilt will be on view from Dec. 12 to Jan. 10 in the LA Arts Gallery, 221 Lisbon St. Gallery hours are noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday to Friday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. The exhibition is free and the community is invited.
As a local volunteer initiative committed to making the community a better and safer place, Green Dot LA offers strategies for safe and effective responses to hurtful and hateful words and behaviors. The quilt’s design conveys the program’s central image of positive “green dot” actions that people can learn in response to negative “red dot” incidents of harassment and violence. The quilt makers include Kitsie Claxton, Eileen Fair, Linda Matzen, Patty Weidler, Wendy Mitchell, Betsy Dorr and June Zellers.
The quilt showcases a central Green Dot tenet that “no one can do everything but everyone can do something.” According to the artists’ statement, “the larger spiral formed by circles suggests the way in which the culture of our community can grow — as our small individual actions gather force and strength over time — in the direction of kindness and safety for all.”
Since 1973, LA Arts, the arts agency for the cities of Lewiston and Auburn, has pursued a mission to engage and inspire a vibrant community through arts and culture. The agency works with governments, businesses, schools and local arts and cultural organizations to create opportunities for community members across the generations to experience, learn and participate in the arts.
LA Arts, 221 Lisbon St., organizes arts programs and initiatives, supports the work of local artists and art organizations and highlights the essential role the arts play in shaping an economically vital, socially integrated and forward-looking future for its community. For more information, visit www.laarts.org.
Quilters Eileen Fair, Kitsie Claxton and Patty Weidler in front of the “KindSpring” quilt. Submitted photo
Send questions/comments to the editors.
