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OUR LITTLE TOWN – It does take a village to weave, separately and together, the 17 panels based on former Weekly News staffer Alex Kramer's watercolors of South First Street storefronts. The 18th panel, of the Gaches Mansion in the center of the mural, was stitched by Japanese quilter Sachiko Yoshido. Twelve street panels and the Mansion are hanging on the La Conner Swinomish Library's south wall.
It's always nice to have connections. Just ask the staff at La Conner Swinomish Library.
Its connections extend not only across town with several local art partnerships but by extension to the other side of the world.
The library this year has displayed in its children's section the popular "Path to La Conner" quilt comprised of panels, depicting familiar storefronts on First Street.
The La Conner-centric imagery was inspired by "Path to Edo" quilt work created by Japanese students and part of a 2008 exhibit at the Pacific Northwest Quilt and Fiber Arts Museum guest curated by renowned quilter Miwako Kimura.
"The Path to Edo" features storefronts based on a hand scroll of the 250-year period spanning the early 17th and late 18th centuries when the Tokugawa family ruled Japan.
"Edo," points out Jacque Chase, the retiring retail manager and education coordinator at the local museum, "was the original name of Tokyo."
It also refers to a distinct era in Japanese history marked by peace, agricultural development, urbanization and artistic productivity.
The parallels to La Conner's evolution led to the local project.
The "Path to La Conner" began with illustrations developed by Alex Kramer, former staff at the La Conner Regional Library and Weekly News, who now resides in Bellingham.
Kramer created sketches and later watercolors of storefronts in La Conner's downtown Historic Preservation District. His work served as the basis for quilt panels crafted by 17 area artisans. Five of the panels have been removed for a painting.
The panels shows La Conner businesses, with an image of the landmark Gaches Mansion on Second Street – home to the quilt museum – in the middle, dividing the First Street storefront depictions. That panel was stitched by renowned Japanese quilter Sachiko Yoshido.
Before the La Conner Swinomish Library opened in 2022, in its planning stages a groundswell of support championed exhibiting art from a variety of partners, including the Skagit County Historical Museum, Museum of Northwest Art and the Pacific Northwest Quilt and Fiber Arts Museum.
"These are great partnerships and I'm a firm believer in what they're doing," Chase told the Weekly News.
New Pacific Northwest Quilt and Fiber Arts Museum Executive Director Carla Funk, who has an extensive background in art history and education, agreed.
"We like to have something from our permanent collection at the library," said Funk, who previously spearheaded the campaign to build the first campus art gallery at the Florida Institute of Technology.
Funk came in mid-July from Asheville, N.C., which to her dismay and that of many of her friends and former colleagues, is now grappling with the devastation of Hurricane Helene.
"The arts district (in Asheville) was hit pretty hard," Funk said, "but they're trying to build back and piece themselves together. It's really a special city. Bellingham reminds me a lot of it."
Conversely, the quilt museum's Japanese connection is anything but a disaster. It continues to be a key element, dating to the museum's formative stage.
Kimura, for instance, guest-curated the quilt museum's first international exhibit less than a year after it opened, more than a quarter-century ago.
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