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Celebrate local African American women quilt artists


Pittsburgh Botanic Garden will celebrate the local artists featured in its current exhibition In Full Bloom with a reception on Thursday, January 22, at 5:30 pm in the Welcome Center. In Full Bloom brings together the work of Pittsburgh-based African American women quilt artists whose creations transcend function to become powerful expressions of identity and heritage. Each quilt embodies beauty and history, transforming fabric into a meaningful expression of culture and legacy. This exhibition, which has been on display at the Garden since November 4, 2025, closes January 26.

 

Registration is required for the January 22 reception, and the cost is $10 for Garden Members and $15 for nonmembers. Guests will enjoy hors d’oeuvres, charcuterie, and a cash bar while meeting the artists and hearing their inspirations. For more information and to register, visit PittsburghBotanicGarden.org and view the Program Calendar or call 412-444-4464.

 

The local artists featured in In Full Bloom include:

  • Ruth Bedeian’s work centers on African American life and culture, with Black women at its heart. Too often their images have been omitted or distorted in art and media; through her quilts, she celebrates their beauty, resilience, and power.
  • Gerry Benton is a fiber artist with a passion for quilting. She started quilting in 1989. Dolls, containers, and quilted clothing are among her other art creations.
  • Christine Bethea is a mixed-media artist whose work reinterprets the meaning of existing materials by redefining their relationships. She serves as an Art Commissioner for the City of Pittsburgh
  • Tina Williams Brewer is a renowned fiber artist based in Pittsburgh’s Homewood community, where she has lived and worked for over 50 years. Brewer received the Pennsylvania Governor’s Award for Artist of the Year in 2018 and the Carol R. Brown Creative Achievement Award in 2024.
  • Kena Tangi Dorsey is a quilt artist, educator, and designer whose work celebrates color, culture, and storytelling through cloth. She began her quilting journey over 25 years ago in Harlem, NYC, and has since developed a signature style that weaves together contemporary design, modern improv, and traditional techniques.
  • Elaine Effort unexpectedly died on November 6, 2024. For 38 years, she served as a reporter for the Pittsburgh news radio station QV 1410. She co-founded the Pittsburgh Black Media Federation and was awarded the Golden Quill for expert storytelling and accountability work.
  • Sandra Gould Ford is an author and artist, educator and former steelworker. This graduate from the University of Pittsburgh’s Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences now enjoys sharing her experiences while encouraging, refreshing, enriching creative thinking and inspiring via in-person presentations and via her blog.
  • TaMara Howard is a textile artist, educator, and cultural organizer weaving threads of heritage, healing, and resistance. She founded The Quilt Empowerment Project (TQEP) to honor quilting as a living archive of memory and community.
  • LaVerne Kemp shares her love of art as a teaching artist with the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts from her Highland Park studio and home. Her public artworks can be found in Children’s Hospital, the August Wilson House, and the Legacy Senior Center in Pittsburgh’s Hill District.
  • JunYetta Seale escaped the high-pressure pulse of Wall Street to return home to Pittsburgh, where she found her true rhythm in fabric, form, and freedom.
  • Ruth Alice Ward is one of Pittsburgh’s iconic master quilters, and has spent a lifetime perfecting her craft and has been making, exhibiting, and selling quilts and textile pieces in the region for decades.
  • Janet Watkins is a self-taught ceramic, mosaic, and watercolor artist whose creative journey began after retiring from a 30-year career at the Federal Reserve Bank. Transforming her curiosity into craftsmanship, she creates sculptural and functional works that celebrate texture, color, and imagination.

 

ABOUT PITTSBURGH BOTANIC GARDEN

 

Botanic Garden is located at 799 Pinkerton Run Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15071. Garden features include Garden of the Five Senses, Allegheny Plateau Woodlands, and Hillside Pollinator Garden. To purchase Admission tickets or learn more, visit PittsburghBotanicGarden.org or call 412-444-4464. Winter hours are Tuesday through Sunday 9 am – 5 pm; Monday Closed. Canopy Café is open Tuesday – Sunday 10 am – 3 pm, full lunch menu served 11 am – 2 pm.

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