BRATTLEBORO — The Lakota Quilt Raffle has become an enduring fundraiser for In-Sight Photography Project. The quilt symbolizes a link between Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and In-Sight in Vermont and a celebration of the connection through In-Sight's Exposures Cross-Cultural Youth Arts Program.
According to a news release, the queen-size quilt is made by Oglala Lakota Sioux seamstress Andrea Marshall, who lives at Pine Ridge. In-Sight founder and photographer John Willis formed a lasting connection with Marshall after many trips to Pine Ridge. Eventually he was invited to photograph for his book, “View from the Reservation,” published in 2010.
Willis has an exhibition of some of his work at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, through Oct. 23. The nontraditional, substandard housing he has encountered on Native American reservations in both South Dakota and Arizona is the subject of many of the photographs.
Marshall's quilt is an example of the lone star quilt, an important figure in Sioux ceremonies. It represents the direction from which spirits travel to earth and is a link between the living and the dead symbolizing immortality.
Ticket prices are: one for $5, five for $20, 30 for $100. Tickets are available at In-Sight Photography Project at 45 Flat St.; at In-Sight's web page, www.insight-photography.org/insight/support/Lakota-Quilt-Raffle, and at Brattleboro Pharmacy, the raffle's sponsor, at 413 Canal St.
The drawing is on Dec. 2 at Gallery Walk, and ticket sales are limited to 300 - which means buying 30 tickets yields a one-in-10 chance of winning the quilt.
Proceeds from the raffle support scholarships for In-Sight's Exposures Cross-Cultural Youth Arts Program, an intensive summer workshop that uses the arts as a common language among youth from diverse communities.