Living Endowment Dinner 2026: “Quilts in the Great Depression and New Deal,” Dr. Janneken Smucker, West Chester University, Pennsylvania

You are cordially invited to support the 40th annual Living Endowment Dinner benefitting Kauffman Museum. Dyck Arboretum of the Plains, 177 W Hickory, Hesston, KS Janneken Smucker will share research from A New Deal for Quilts (International Quilt Museum with University of Nebraska Press, and winner of the 2023 New Deal Book Award), exploring the ways Depression-era federal programs drew on quilts and quiltmaking as part of government relief and public relations efforts. Her visually rich presentation will feature images of quilts Americans made during the Great Depression, including in support of New Deal programs, to send as gifts to the Roosevelts in appreciation, and to express their hopes and fears amid the economic downturn. Her discussion will also include governmental photography of women at work on quilts in WPA Sewing Rooms, quilts in use in precarious living conditions, and women learning quiltmaking from expert home economists in the many federally planned communities and migratory labor camps established across the country. The quilts themselves are powerful forms of communication, serving as political statements of Americans’ hopes and dreams for recovery. Call (316) 283-1612 or stop by the Museum to make your reservation if you didn’t receive an invitation or would prefer to register in an different way.