PATRON of the SQSG

Recently Karen Fail and the committee of the SQSG invited Dr. Annette Gero to become the Patron of the SQSG, after her role of 10 years as the founder of the SQSG and the Convenor.
We thought you would like to know a little about Dr. Gero and what contribution she has made in the quilting world.

Dr. Annette Gero
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES: QUILTS AND TEXTILES

Annette Gero, one of Australia’s first quilt historians, has been documenting and collecting quilts since 1982. She has travelled widely around Australia giving lectures and exhibitions on the history of quilts. For this work she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts (London). She was the first Australian to present a paper on the history of Australian quilts at the American Quilt Study Group Symposium in 1987 (Australian Patriotic Quilts) and at the quilt symposium "In the Heart of Pennsylvania " at the University of Lewisberg, Pennsylvania, USA, on Australian Waggas in 1988. She has also presented papers on her quilt research at the Quilt Study Group of Australia seminars; “Unleashing Collections”, the symposium of the NZ Costume and Textile Section of the Auckland Museum Institute; and at overseas conferences in Edmonton, Canada, New Zealand, France and London, UK. She has also studied quilt conservation and quilt documentation at workshops in the USA. She has published over 80 articles in magazines and journals on Australian quilt history.

She is perhaps most highly recognised for her own quilt collection which as been regarded as a "National Treasure" by the Manly Art Gallery. Her collection contains Australian, English and American quilts that have been exhibited in over 30 exhibitions throughout Australia in Regional Art Galleries, in NSW, Queensland and Victoria and through The National Trust. Her Australian quilt collection has been invited to the International Houston Show (USA) in 2002 and in 2003 to "Mosaiques d'etoffes : a la recherche de l'hexagon" at the Musee des Traditions et Arts Normandy , Martainville, France. In 2006, her quilts were exhibited in France at the textile museum, Musee De L'impression Sur Etoffes, Mulhouse and at the European Quilt Symposium at Ste Marie aux Mines, Alsace. Her first book Historic Australian Quilts was published by the National Trust in 2000. Her second book, The Fabric of Society - Australia's Quilt Heritage from Convict Times To 1960 with Kim Mclean, is to be published in 2008.

CURRICULUM VITAE

Dr Annette M. Gero
PO Box 398 Neutral Bay,
NSW 2089
a.gero@unsw.edu.au

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES: QUILTS AND TEXTILES

1983 Joined The Quilters Guild of NSW

1985 Elected Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts (FRSA London),
in recognition of research of historical quilts.

1988 Committee, for Australian Bicentennial quilt exhibition

1996 Faculty, Australian Academy of Decorative Arts, Sydney

1996 Founder and Convenor of the Sydney Quilt Study Group

2000 Work in relation to Australian quilts archived in National Library of Australia

2001 Convenor, Quilt Study Group of Australia

2002 Postgraduate Guest Lecturer, School of Fine Arts, Newcastle University.

2003 Elected Board Member, International Quilt Study Center, Nebraska

2003 Associate Fellow, International Quilt Study Center, Nebraska
2007 Patron, Sydney Quilt Study Group