We were in western Kentucky when I saw that we would be driving past Paducah. I thought I would stop by the museum for Mom's sake. I wasn't expecting much from the city itself, based on her recollections from the early 1990s. But what I discovered while planning the quick stop, which grew into a two-day stay, was that quilting now shares the stage with many forms of art. More than that, Paducah, a historic Civil War town at the confluence of the Ohio and Tennessee rivers, has transformed itself in a way many small cities would envy.
Most of the credit goes to its Artist Relocation Program, which has turned Lowertown, the most rundown section of Paducah, into a crown jewel. Although various residents had worked to save the area, the turnaround came in 2001 after Mark Barone, a local artist, and Thomas Barnett, the city planner, created a program offering artists affordable real estate, financial incentives, relaxed zoning laws, and marketing support. Artists invested much of their own money and labor to improve the neighborhood, now called the Lowertown Arts District. The results are amazing. Crime has been reduced, houses restored, and galleries now dot the 26-square-block area.
Although you might suppose fabric art would predominate, the work is pretty much across the board, including painting, multimedia, photography, metal and glass sculpture, ceramics, and jewelry. There is one large textile gallery, Bryerpatch Studio, run by Caryl Bryer Fallert, an international quilting star who moved from the Chicago area in 2005.
