In recent years, barn quilt trails have sprouted up across the nation as a way to celebrate American folk art and draw tourism to rural areas.
Now the Pauls Valley Arts Council is working to bring the phenomenon to Garvin County by establishing a barn quilt trail in Pauls Valley.
Barn quilt trails typically consist of driving or walking tours featuring collections of painted quilt squares mounted on the sides of barns and other structures in a particular area. The location of each painting is mapped and made available online or through an organization like a local chamber of commerce.
“The idea is to promote tourism,” PVAC member Bonnie Meisel said. “This is a way rural cities have added to their tourism situation. People can get a map and come out and search out all the barn quilts in your community.”
Meisel was first introduced to the concept at an Oklahoma Arts Council conference about three years ago, where she attended a workshop on building Oklahoma Barn Quilt Trails.
The workshop, hosted by OSU Extension educators, introduced barn quilt trails as a simple and affordable way to revitalize rural areas and stimulate local economies.
The quilt trails are designed to pull tourists off main roads and into rural communities where they are also likely to eat and shop.
“That idea just really appealed to me, living where we live,” Meisel said. “It was bringing traffic to small towns.”
She brought the idea home and shared it with fellow PVAC members, who quickly embraced the concept, and they purchased the materials to get started.
And then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, putting the project on hold for nearly a year.
This spring PVAC members were able to pick the idea back up.
Starting with classic quilt patterns, they created nearly 30 quilt blocks that they will be unveiling during the Fifth Friday Art Walk on July 30.
During the Art Walk the signs will be mounted on the side of the Arts Council building at 220 W. Paul Ave. and displayed in the windows of participating venues and in the bump outs along Paul Avenue. After the Art Walk, Meisel said the Arts Council will be working to find permanent homes around the downtown area where the signs can be mounted to an outside structure.
The quilt blocks can range in size from 2-foot square to 8-foot square and are paint-ed on exterior sign board material using a flat-sheen exterior paint or chalk paint. Meisel said the goal is for the signs to weather just a bit, adding to the character of the piece, but not completely fade out over time.
The blocks are a great project for anyone, Meisel said, because they can be as simple or as intricate as an artist’s skill level and imagination allow. They also have the potential to highlight the culture and history of specific communities.
PVAC members hope the project will grow and others in the Pauls Valley community, as well as neighboring communities, might be inspired to add their own barn quilt squares to the effort.
Other Oklahoma communities like Blackwell, Barnsdall and Frederick have already seen success with similar barn quilt trails, and in 2017, the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service began work to develop a foundation supporting a statewide barn quilt trail network.
“This is what we’re working toward,” Meisel said.
Local artist Jasmine Tadlock, who paints barn quilt squares on reclaimed wood, will be demonstrating how to paint barn quilts at the Arts Council building during the July 30 Fifth Friday Artwalk.
Meisel said the PVAC is also working on plans to offer public classes on how to paint barn quilt squares.
