Textile Center Presents Florida Quilt Exhibit and Selections by National Artist Yvonne Porcella

‎ MELBOURNE, FLA.—The Ruth Funk Center for Textile Arts at Florida Institute of Technology announces its first juried exhibition of art quilts, FLORIDA IN FABRIC, Wish You Were Here!, which will feature 15 original quilts created by Florida artists. In conjunction with FLORIDA IN FABRIC, the center will present an exhibition featuring national artist Yvonne Porcella entitled Yvonne Porcella: Quilt Selections 1986 – 2012.

These quilts will be on view at the Funk Center, May 19 – Aug. 18. Featured FLORIDA IN FABRIC works were selected by a distinguished panel of jurors: artist Yvonne Porcella of Modesto, Calif.; Jeana Elizabeth Brunson, director of the Museum of Florida History in Tallahassee; and quilt scholar and independent curator Gloria Craft Comstock of Gainesville, Fla.

FLORIDA IN FABRIC aims to promote an appreciation of quilt making as an art form and to provide Florida quilters with an opportunity to display their quilts in the state’s premier textile arts center. Art accepted for this exhibition exemplifies innovation in quilting and surface design techniques as well as excellence in artistic composition and craftsmanship.

Yvonne Porcella: Quilt Selections 1986 – 2012 will feature quilts from the artist’s recent retrospective at the Carnegie Arts Center in Turlock, Calif., as well as contemporary work inspired by the state of Florida. Porcella, founder and past President of the Board of Directors of Studio Art Quilt Associates, has taught and lectured throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, Europe and Japan. Her quilts are in the permanent collections of numerous museums, including the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Ga., the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Arts and Design in New York City and The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.

To celebrate the exhibits’ launch, Porcella will present a free gallery talk at the Funk Center May 19 at 2 p.m.

Regular hours for the Ruth Funk Center are Tuesday to Friday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday, from noon to 4 p.m. The Center is located next to Evans Library on the Florida Tech campus in Melbourne at 150 W. University Blvd. Admission is free. For more information, visit http://textiles.fit.edu or call (321) 674-8313.