Based in Surfside Beach, SC, professional artist and retired educator Jo-Ann Morgan considers her artwork her form of activism – activism against violence. Her fabric memorials, as she refers to them, are quilted wall hangings that pay tribute to victims of violence. The work evolved out of a convergence of global, personal and national events beginning with the tragedies that ignited the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. The untimely deaths of Breanna Taylor and George Floyd and other national events became the subject of her work. Confined and seeking a time-intensive activity during the housebound days of the pandemic, Morgan bought a sewing machine and began appliqueing together compositions layered with cotton fabric. Morgan finds her medium, which resembles quilted comforters, makes the distressing subject of her work more familiar and approachable. “I find it ideal for addressing provocative topics related to social justice and inequality, which enables me to have a voice for topical commentary.”
Each memorial pays tribute to one victim. The artist adds flowers and personal mementos, recalling spontaneous public memorials that are often erected after untimely or tragic deaths. Sadly, there never seems to be a lack of subjects to commemorate, and to date, Morgan has made over 50 – and counting – memorials, including victims of war, police brutality, hate and school shootings. “There is no greater public health issue affecting children than gun violence,” says Morgan. “Perhaps there is no way to stop these events from happening, but I can – and believe it is important to – keep us aware that they’re going on.”
Jo-Ann Morgan is Professor Emerita of African American Studies and Art History, Western Illinois University (Macomb, IL). She authored The Black Arts Movement and the Black Panther Party in American Visual Culture (2019) and Uncle Tom’s Cabin as Visual Culture (2007), which was awarded the Seaborg Award for Civil War Scholarship in 2008. Prior to becoming a scholar of African American art and culture, Morgan received her MFA in 1988 from the University of Wyoming in Studio Art and remained active as a visual artist while a doctoral student at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles; PhD, 1997). After two decades of university teaching, in 2020 Morgan reestablished a full-time studio practice. Morgan has exhibited her work in solo and group exhibitions at a variety of community art centers and at colleges and universities throughout the country. She is the recipient of a Cultural Commentary/Social Change Grant from Fiber Art Now (2021) and a Not Real Art Award from Culver City Arts Foundation (2022).
© 2016 Franklin G. Burroughs • Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum
Myrtle Beach’s Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum strives to be one of the finest visual arts museums in the Carolinas. With 11 galleries that change throughout the year, Myrtle Beach’s only art museum offers exhibitions featuring paintings, textiles, sculpture, photography, video, ceramics, assemblage, collage and more. A visit to the Art Museum’s exhibitions can be enhanced by its lively programming, including artist receptions, tours, lectures, workshops and classes for both adults and children.
