Peggie Hartwell

Background

Peggie Hartwell grew up on a farm with a large, extended family.

Education

Hartwell completed her education in urban New York City. Hartwell studied with legendary dance master Syvilla Fort of New York City.

Career

She currently lives in Summerville, South Carolina, where she is Chairperson of the Summerville Chapter of the Women of Color Quilters Network. Their focus is to teach school-age children the art and tradition of making story-quilts. During the 1940s and 1950s, southern African-American farmers moved in large numbers to northern cities.

She then spent nearly eight years performing Jazz, Modern Primitive and Modern dance techniques throughout Europe and the Middle East.

After her performance career ended, she obtained a position at one of the oldest brokerage firms, Tanenbaum Harber Company of New York City. Hartwell developed as a quilt artist during this time.

Her work is mostly autobiographical, drawing upon the continuous exposure to folk-life customs and traditions she had in her youth. A collection of her work can be found at the Museum of Arts and Design.

In 1996, Hartwell received a grant from the National Quilting Association, Incorporated. to create a ten quilt series that recorded her South Carolina childhood and farm experiences.

Hartwell has a Bachelor of Arts in Theater from Queens College, Queens, New York She has a Certificate of Completion: Artists in Classrooms, Developing Strategies for Working with Students with Disabilities from South Carolina (U.S.) School for the Deaf and Blind, Spartanburg, South Carolina (U.S.) She is on the Roster as a Master Artist for Opus Incorporated., Hartford, Connecticut. She is also on the Roster as Artist in the Classroom for the State of South Carolina. Solo exhibitions " Group Exhibitions Quilted Conscience Quilted Conscience is the story of 16 Sudanese girls who landed with their families in Grand Island, and is “an uplifting film about finding a new life through art”, which made its premier on, June 14, on NET1/HD. Filmmaker John Sorensen documented the girls’ journey as new Americans as they participated in an arts project with a local quilters guild, guided by nationally known African-American quilt-maker, Peggie Hartwell.

Hartwell is also featured in The Cloth Sings to Maine (1995) and The Spirit of the Individual (1997). Both are about textile artists in New York and produced by Esperanza Martinez and Linda Roennau.

She was also interviewed by host LeVar Burton on Reading Rainbow, and spoke of her quiltmaking and cultural legacy.

Achievements

• "A Quilter’s Spirit," YMI Culture Arts Center, Ashville, North Carolina, 2000. "Vanished Images," New York Founding Hospital, New York, New York, 2000 "Threads of Faith," Beach Institute for African American Art & Culture Savannah, Georgia 2006 "Threads of Faith," Cincinnati Museum Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2005 "Threads of Faith," Gallery of the American Bible Society, New York, New York, 2004. "Sixth Annual Quilting Weekend," Frost Valley Young Men’s Christian Association, Claryville, New York, 2002 "Stories in Art," Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont, 2001.

Membership

Mississippi Hartwell is a member of the National Chapter of the Women of Color Quilters Network (WCQN), the American Quilt Society (AQS), and of the National Quilting Association (NQA).