Detail of Colleen's quilt featuring Ugandan animals

Colleen Lindsey has been hard at work on a quilt to be raffled off at the Columbia City Gallery on Sunday, May 23rd from 6:30-8:30 pm  to benefit the Volunteer Artists Program (VAP). The event will raise funds to send artists to Uganda to work with the Batwa Pygmies to find a way to sustain themselves. Seattle Times columnist Jerry Large recently wrote a nice profile of Marsha Conn and her work with the Batwa.

The event is free and the raffle tickets for a chance at Colleen’s amazing quilt are only $5!

More from Colleen after the jump.

From Colleen Lindsey:

Hello all!

As most of you know, I have been working very hard on a quilt to be raffled off at the Columbia City Gallery on Sunday, May 23rd.  The Volunteer Artist Program(VAP) is trying to raise enough funds to go to Uganda to help the Batwa Pygmies find a way to sustain themselves.  Let me tell you a little bit about this group….

Marsha Conn, a former teacher and art professor, has gone to Africa before with a group called Smile Power(dentists that volunteer to help people who cannot pay or no doctors available).  There, she encountered a group of people that were cheerful, bright, but without homes.  They were the Batwa Pygmies, driven out of their hunter gatherer existance due to the protection needed to guarantee the Mountain Gorillas existance.  Poaching had gotten out of control and stronger measures were taken to protect the animals.  The Batwa were not poaching, but they were in the line of fire, so they were prevented from entering the forest.  They basically squat in any village that lets them stay for awhile, as the government did not award these people any compensation for their loss of culture or needs.  Marsha was determined to help them.  She came up with the concept that if these people learned a skill that was valuable, using local materials, they could make something of value to sustain their basic needs.  She recruited other artists to volunteer time and energy to help if they could, thus the VAP was formed.

I cannot go due to the fact I have young kids and am needed here more.  I have helped in other ways by making this quilt to be raffled off.

You can support by buying tickets to win this artpiece, $5 each or 5 for $20 by cash or check made out to Marsha Conn and “VAP” put in the memo part.  All 27 animals are hand drawn and crafted out of fabric, paint and permanent inks and are representative of the native species of Ugandan wildlife.  This wall quilt is 42″ wide by 52″ long and is worth $1500, so $5 for a chance to win is great!

If you choose to go to the event and make a donation or buy tickets and have a drink with me, the details are as follows:

Date: Sunday, May 23rd
Time: 6:30pm-8:30pm(short and sweet)
Place: Columbia City Gallery

We are looking to make $3000 for our goal to be a reality, so tell everyone you can about this event

Oh, and it’s a FREE event!

Thank you for your support and enjoy the pics of my favorite panels!

Colleen Lindsey
the chick that sews on Sullivan

Detail of Colleen’s quilt featuring Ugandan animals.

Colleen’s quilt in progress.

Tags: Colleen Lindsey

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