Out & About: Rugs and coverlets hook up in SAMA-Ligonier exhibit
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Some hookers gathered Aug. 17 at the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art at Ligonier Valley.
Don’t be scandalized, though — they were rug hookers (and some other folks) attending the opening reception for “A Celebration of Texture and Pattern: Hooked Rugs and Historic Coverlets,” showing through Oct. 27.
The exhibition features hooked rugs by fiber artist and rug expert Barb Carroll of Ligonier, inspired by and paired with historic woven coverlets from the National Museum of the American Coverlet in Bedford.
Carroll was the proprietor of the former Woolley Fox bed and breakfast near Ligonier, where she also taught rug hooking. She is a rug collector, the author of four books on the craft and has designed rug patterns highly prized by other rug makers.
Her interest in coverlets led to the joint exhibition, which took a year of planning to bring to fruition, according to site coordinator Kristin Miller. The display includes 19 coverlets and 21 rugs.
Lazslo and Melinda Zongor, caretakers of the Bedford museum, also were on hand for the reception.
Melinda Zongor said the museum, established in 2006 in a circa-1859 former schoolhouse, is open nearly every day of the year, except Christmas, New Year’s Day and sometimes Thanksgiving.
The collection numbers about 1,000 pieces, of which about 100 are displayed each year.
Reception guests included Diane Ambrose and Robert Lewis, Dr. Tom and Penny Gessner, Judy Harrison, Amy Burks and Carroll’s sister, Judy Enis, visiting from her home in Smethport, McKean County.