Storytelling Beyond Words: The Quilt Index  & Meteor Ink

Join GRAM alongside a diverse collection of community partners as we explore how wordless storytelling occurs through different forms of creativity and self-expression. In these interactive conversations, participants will learn from local experts and experience how seemingly disparate art forms share commonalities.

On October 31, Join professor and curator Marsha MacDowell, Ph.D. for a presentation on storytelling through quilting. MacDowell serves as the director of The Quilt Index—a community-engaged, digital humanities project that preserves and creates access to stories and images of quilts and their makers. Explore a sampling of local quilts and quilts from around the world that communicate visual stories. 

Enjoy a presentation by Emerson Jermstad and Ryan Heed, apprentices at Meteor Ink House de Tatuadora—a tattoo shop on South Division in Grand Rapids. Meteor Ink offers tattoos and piercings, and as apprentices, Jermstad and Heed are learning to master these art forms. Their presentation will include a brief history of tattooing, as well as its role in many cultures throughout the world. Learn how tattooing is an important and varied medium of expression.