Making the Crystal Quilt

From The Crystal Quilt performance, Suzanne Lacy, Phyllis Jane Rose, Nancy Dennis, Sage Cowles, Minneapolis, 1987.

Three years in the making, The Crystal Quilt performance culminated the Whisper Minnesota Project, a public artwork to bring awareness to the leadership role of older. Beginning with a three month Humphrey Institute of Public Policy seminar for 35 older women from throughout the state, the project built on that leadership to design and produce a massive performance with 430 performers over the age of sixty. Staged in the Philip Johnson-designed IDS Center’s Crystal Court, the performance took place on Mothers Day in 1987, and was live broadcast on PBS television. Over 3,000 people attended the event to witness older women talking about their lives as their gathering created an eighty-two foot square tableau in the shape of a quilt.

Executive Producer, Suzanne Lacy; Producer and Editor, Michelle Baughan; Sound Composition by Susan Stone; Stage Design by Miriam Schapiro. Directing and Camerawork provided by KTCA television and Producer Emily Goldberg and by Lisa Swenson.