What happens when you give young people the opportunity to turn the issues they care about into art?
For students at the Broken Arrow Options Academy, the answer became a quilt.
Funded by the Oklahoma Arts Council, The Burning Issue Quilt Project brought together Tulsa-area fiber artist Sean Tyler, fiber artist and Arts@302 Director Jennifer Deal, and students enrolled in the Crafts class at Broken Arrow Options Academy for a six-week exploration of fiber arts, creativity, and personal expression.
The project began with a simple question: What issues matter to you?
Students, who are in grades 9 through 12 and thrive in the Academy’s smaller, non-traditional educational environment, were invited to brainstorm the problems in society they considered their own “burning issues.” Each student then chose one issue that felt personally meaningful and began developing an idea for a quilt block that could communicate it visually.
Over the next two months, Sean and Jennifer worked alongside the students as they designed and created their individual blocks. The process introduced students to fiber art while giving them the freedom to make something that reflected their own perspectives, interests, and personalities.
And the results were deeply personal.
One student created a polar bear block inspired by concerns about the environment. In the process, she also discovered something unexpected: she loved sewing.
It was the first time she had ever sewn something, but after seeing what she could accomplish, she told Sean that she wanted to learn more and keep sewing. That spark is exactly the kind of lasting connection to the arts that the project hoped to create.
Another student, Gage, particularly embraced the opportunity to make their block their own. Sean noted that the finished piece showed an unmistakable sense of the student’s personality and style.
For another student, simply finishing the project was an accomplishment. The student’s art teacher, Sean Kennedy, shared that this was a student who rarely completed projects, yet they finished their quilt block on time and did an excellent job. The project had clearly captured their attention in a way that made them want to see it through.
That engagement was visible when the finished quilt came together.
After the students completed their individual blocks, Fiber Artists of Oklahoma helped sew them together into a finished quilt. What had begun as a collection of individual ideas became a single collaborative work of art.
When the students saw the completed quilt, they were eager to be photographed with it, including several students who had not completed a block themselves. At least one student was so enthusiastic about the process that they created an additional quilt block to take home.
The finished quilt was displayed at the Northeastern State University Broken Arrow campus from April 6 through 17 as part of the Broken Arrow Public Schools district art show, giving the students an opportunity to see their work presented publicly alongside artwork from across the district.
The project also gave students an introduction to the broader arts community right here in Broken Arrow.
Although the quilt-making itself took place at the Academy, the students visited Arts@302 at the conclusion of the project for a tour of the art center. Jennifer spent approximately an hour and a half with the students exploring the studios and viewing large-scale silk paintings in the gallery. The students even voted for their favorite piece.
For Jennifer, the opportunity to connect students with a working artist was one of the most meaningful parts of the project.
“As the Executive Director of Arts@302, I love that we were able to assist in providing an opportunity to expose the students at the Broken Arrow Options Academy to an artist working in an unusual medium, fibers, as well as one who is successfully making a living as an artist.”
That connection is at the heart of what makes arts education powerful. Students weren’t simply learning how to make a quilt. They were meeting artists, experimenting with an unfamiliar medium, discovering skills they didn’t know they had, and seeing their own ideas become part of a finished work that could be shared with their community.
The project was made possible through funding from the Oklahoma Arts Council, whose support helped create an arts learning opportunity specifically designed for students in an alternative educational setting. The project also grew from Jennifer and Sean’s desire to bring a similar “burning issues” quilting concept to local students, creating a program that combined artistic skill-building with meaningful personal expression.
The experience may not have ended with the exhibition.
With Arts@302 having recently received funding for sewing machines and planning to offer sewing classes in the future, the student who discovered a love of sewing may have an opportunity to continue exploring that interest. And with the Academy located just down the street from Arts@302, the hope is that this project can be the beginning of an ongoing relationship, with future field trips and opportunities for students to experience the art center firsthand.
A quilt is made from individual pieces. Each piece has its own shape, color, texture, and story. On their own, the students’ blocks each expressed something different. Together, they became something larger.
In much the same way, The Burning Issue Quilt Project gave each student space to bring their own perspective to the table while showing them what can happen when individual voices come together through art.
Arts@302 is grateful to the Oklahoma Arts Council for supporting this project and helping make meaningful, accessible arts experiences possible for students in our community.
