Grief Quilt for Palestine
Thinking Culture presents a special programme around the Grief Quilt for Palestine. In June 2024, a group of students at University College London and The Slade School of Fine Art curated an intervention at the MA Degree Show about their university’s complicity in funding genocide through its investment portfolio. The UCL Action For Palestine’s exhibition, titled the Palestine Zone, provided explicit evidence of this complicity in arms manufacturers, advocated for divestment and an end to apartheid, and celebrated Palestinian culture in the face of attempted erasure since the 1948 Nakba النَّكْبَة & before.
Further information can be found here.
Exhibition + Workshop
1:00–3.00pm, Thursday 23 July 2026 + 11:00am-1.00pm, Saturday 25 July 2026
Strange Exchange, 62 Moncur Street, Glasgow, G40 2SB
Free but ticketed – book here.
The Grief Quilt for Palestine begun by art historian and quilter Dr Jess Bailey and her students will be exhibited at Strange Exchange, Glasgow on Thursday July 23 and Saturday July 25.
On July 23rd, a free tatreez workshop will be offered, celebrating the art of tatreez, traditional Palestinian embroidery. An introduction to the symbolic and cultural significance of tatreez and a chance to learn Palestinian cross stitching, all materials and patterns provided.
Tatreez kits will be available, created by Palestinian Artist and Designer, Jude:
As a Palestinian artist and designer, my work focuses on humanising the Palestinian struggle—especially amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza—by highlighting resistance and resilience. I aim to challenge mainstream narratives and create space for often-overlooked social issues. These kits were originally designed for a workshop I hosted during an ‘Interchange week’ at university, and have been repurposed for many local activist groups to host their own tatreez workshops. I hope these zines to bring communities together and learn about Palestinian traditions.
Artist Talk
6.00-7.30pm, Thursday 30 July 2026
Humanity Lecture Theatre, Main Building, University of Glasgow G12 8QQ
Free but ticketed – book here.
Join art historian and quilter Dr Jess Bailey (University of Edinburgh, @publiclibraryquilts) for a lecture about the histories, practices, and methods of grief quilt making in North America and the UK. We will explore how quilters of the past negotiated and honoured grief through working with cloth while making useful love for present and future kin. We will also consider the ways quilting traditions offer current communities’ space to process trauma together.
After the short lecture, Jess will be joined by author and curator Dr Sharbreon Plummer, who is visiting Scotland from New Orleans where she writes about Black feminist textile traditions including quilts for a conversation. Jess and Sharbreon Co-Founded the People’s Quilting Bee together where they bring historical quilts into dialog with contemporary struggles for liberation. Dr Jess Bailey is the author of Many Hands Make a Quilt: Short Histories of Radical Quilting. Dr Sharbreon Plummer is the author of Stories in the Seams: A People’s History of Black Quilts and Their Makers.