The Poetry and Short Story courses have invited mixed media and fiber artist and teaching artist Mallory Zondag '12 back to Moravian to run a series of virtual workshops for three sections of English classes. 

In 2017, when Ms. Zondag visited, she helped students can create quilt blocks of their personal narratives and poems and my 2020-21 classes will repeat this process. Mallory Zondag is a textile artist who not only has been a part of our school community as a student but also has continued to enhance our community as a teaching artist.  Textiles and her interest in narrative are central to her work. 

Our project this year is an Identity Quilt. Each student created their own story block for the quilt of our community that we will assemble. This workshop taught students, too, about the passion they have in their own stories and about how to express those stories in a work of art. 

The project also reminds us of our rich history with the textile arts at the Moravian Seminary for Girls.  Moravian Academy’s history of needlework and embroidery has its roots in the early years of our school, where it was considered both a useful domestic skill and a means of artistic expression.  Textile work as a part of the art curriculum continued at our school until the '50s and '60s, and resurfaced later when embroidered chair covers were made in commemoration of another school milestone. 

To once again turn to the textile arts, as our school has many times in its past, students had the opportunity to express themselves artistically and to understand themselves in a unique way.