Back in October 2022, I received an unexpected email:

Hello Dr. Guertin from a tiny science center/children’s museum in rural Ohio (this is us: https://www.facebook.com/spispot and www.spi-mountvernon.org).  I love your quilts – can I display them in our space for a while?! Let’s chat when you can if you are willing to entertain the idea…

What a wonderful email to see in my Inbox! I reached out to SPI, the Science Play-Space Initiative, and I found out that they learned about my quilts through the Smithsonian Magazine article I was featured in, Inside the Growing Movement to Share Science Through Quilting. They were looking to use some of my science quilts as springboards for table top activities and pop up demos on the content conveyed. 

So I packed up nine of my quilts, most from my Endangered Species Act collection, and sent them along to the SPI/Kenyon College Wright Center in Mount Vernon, Ohio. It’s the first time I’ve ever shipped off quilts, and I was sad to see them go(!) – but they aren’t helping with my science communication and education goals if they are sitting in my house!

From April to August 2023, the quilts were on display! Alas, I unfortunately do not have any photos of the quilts on display, but SPI was kind enough to send me some of the signage they hung up, and the results of a community “quilt” project!

Seeing that math was part of the hands-on activities supporting the quilt was exciting!

This paper quilt created by visitors was inspiring. It was such a fun idea to engage those at SPI and fits with the quilt theme.

I hope there will be additional opportunities to share my quilts with SPI and other venues. Soon, the quilts will be journeying to geoscience conferences, and then….?