Just Wanna Copyright for Makers: The New England Quilt Museum Exhibit
Welcome to Blog Post #5 of the blog series Just Wanna Copyright for Makers highlights concepts from the recently released book and accompanying exhibit at the New England Quilt Museum. For more about the steps in the common quilting blocks and other aspects of copyright, purchase a copy of the book!
We were so honored to have been asked to curate an exhibit for the New England Quilt Museum that reflects some of the concepts in the book. The exhibit, of the same title, runs through March 29, 2025. And we have images! We thought we would take the time to share some of the images from the show.
Our goal with the show was to present some of the key concepts in copyright using fiber arts. We were so proud of the variety in the show. The pieces tell us a lot about copyright. Let’s take a look!
Artist Kit Montgomery felted a version of Sid Gard’s butterfly that we use for the Copyright Lifecycle. This was an authorized derivative version of Sid’s original drawing.
Sid’s Original Work
Kit’s Felted Version
Artist Amy Yoes allowed us to include one of her foldings, Folding #152 (Bustle Variant), in the show to demonstrate that shapes are not protectable (e.g. a circle, triangle, etc.) but putting them together in this beautiful piece of art creates a copyrightable work.
About the piece, Amy writes, “Foldings are printed and painted on both sides of canvases. With these works, Yoes drapes the materials from the surface of the wall applying a mutable, typographic quality to her sculpture-paintings where silkscreen, paint and graphite combine to create map-like surfaces, charts of signs, signifying a terrain of somewhere-something else. Although on canvas and muslin, the two dimensions insist on three dimensions. They fold and project from the wall to show viewers hints of what lies below, under the fold and out of sight. ... As charts or maps, they invite close examination, bringing the body of viewers near to scrutinize the surfaces, follow the geometric signs, as their eyes go to the edge and attempt to round contours, into voids where folds inevitably forbid further visual entré. The viewer’s body is implicated in these works that simultaneously reveal something while withholding total access. They hold interest."" —Excerpt from the essay ""Amy Yoes and the Exhibition Machine"" by James Voorhies, 2019.
Amy's use of fabric, shapes, colors, and her folding technique takes non-protectable elements and turns them into copyrightable artwork. The copyright adheres to the work the moment it is created, automatically.
Sandra Hoving Engstrand’s quilt helps us learn that short phrases are not protectable by copyright (although they might be protected by trademark!). Anyone can make a quilt that says, “Eat. Quilt. Sleep. Repeat.” Sandra Hoving Enstradt created this quilt for Just Wanna Quilt. She combines the colors of Just Wanna Quilt in spools of threads, with the phrase, ""Eat. Quilt. Sleep. Repeat.""
Short phrases are not protected by copyright. You can make a quilt using this phrase too! But Sandra's choices may be enough creativity to gain copyright protection through her own selection, arrangement, and coordination of common ideas, blocks, colors, and of course, the phrase!
Finally, two sets of pieces relate to blog posts from previous weeks. The first is the sample of work from Project Quilting, which was featured in our Blog Post, “It Starts with an Idea.” Here are examples of the idea “Hourglass.”
And in last week’s blog post, we discussed common blocks. We have represented common blocks in the show with eight of the blocks from the Common Block project that was part of Just Wanna Quilt 2018.
Just Wanna Quilt began as a research project by Dr. Elizabeth Townsend Gard that explore the intersection of creativity, quilting and copyright. Along the way, we recorded over 400 interviews, with most being released as part of the podcast of the same name. On Wednesday, February 5th, 2025, we celebrated our seventh birthday of the project. It’s been amazing.
And so, we will be sharing more of the images from the exhibit in the next few posts, and also providing links to new episodes of the podcast. For know, if this has made you more curious about copyright, check out the book, Just Wanna Copyright for Makers!
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Elizabeth Townsend Gard is the John E. Koerner Endowed Professor of Law at Tulane University Law School and an avid quilter since childhood. She holds a Ph.D. in Cultural History from UCLA and has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court for her work on copyright. Elizabeth is the lead author of the series. Elizabeth focuses on the legal expertise of the book.
Sidne K. Gard is a Distinguished Scholar Scholarship student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an Entertainment Editor at F Newsmagazine. Sidne focuses on translating legal concepts to artists and crafters. Sidne is the Managing Editor and Design Director for the Just Wanna Trademark for Makers series.
Elizabeth and Sidne started Just Wanna Quilt, which has also expanded to crafts and art. Listen to the podcast and learn more at justwannaquilt.com.
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