The Family and Consumer Science (FACS) Alumni Association and the Kentucky Museum are sponsoring “Preserving the Past, Sustaining the Future,” a juried quilt show and historic retrospective, honoring the 100th anniversary of the department.  The show opened Oct. 21 and runs through Dec. 10.

Family and Consumer Science alumni Martha Jenkins, Sherry Buda and Romanza Johnson are co-chairs of the event, which includes programs, demonstrations, workshops, appraisals, vendors and gift sales. The exhibition and most of the events are free and open to the public.  There is a small fee for having quilts appraised, workshops resulting in completed quilted items, and photographing of your quilts.  One segment of the show includes computer generated quilt designs by Sheila Flener’s AutoCAD students majoring in Interior Design and Fashion Merchandising at Western Kentucky University.

The quilts and historic vignettes are divided into historic periods:  The Foundation Years (1911-1929), Years of Struggle (1930-1945), Years of Growth and Plenty (1946-1969), Years of Change and Growth (1970-1989) and Years of Change and Sustainability (1990-present).  Each segment of the show tells a story about that period in the 100-year history of the FACS Department.

“We are pleased to be able to honor this valuable century-long component of the University,” said Martha Jenkins, one of the organizers of the event.  Dr. Henry Hardin Cherry brought Miss Iva Scott to WKU to start the Domestic Science and Domestic Arts department in 1911.  The unit now offers majors in Family and Consumer Sciences Education, Interior Design, Fashion Merchandising, Dietetics, Hotel Restaurant and Tourism Management, and Child and Family Studies.

For more detailed information about the exhibition and the upcoming programming of events go to http://www.wku.edu/library/disc/exhibits.php#fcs  or contact local FACS alumni Martha Jenkins at 270-846-0686 or  jenkins777@insightbb.com; Romanza Johnson at 842-3416 or romanzaj@insightbb.com.