“You want me to do what?” Bonnie Schrock thought she had misunderstood National Quilt Museum (NQM) founder Meredith Schroeder’s request. Bonnie was just wrapping up a 32-year career in executive leadership at Baptist Health when she got the surprising call from Meredith asking her to become the Executive Director of Paducah’s iconic National Quilt Museum. Bonnie remembers laughing in disbelief. She was on a countdown to retirement—ready to quilt, garden, pursue her hobbies.
Before she joined Baptist Health, Bonnie was a reporter and news anchor at WPSD from 1983 to 1992. She has 40 years of experience in communications and corporate management, and also possesses a personal passion for quilting. Bonnie discovered her quilting inspiration in the late 1980s while covering the annual American Quilter’s Society (AQS) Quilt Show and Contest as a journalist.
Meredith Schroeder, founder of AQS along with her late husband Bill, told Bonnie to think about the opportunity. A day or so later, Bonnie’s husband, Fletcher, asked her what she had decided. She said after 42 years she thought she needed a break. Fletcher pulled up the job description on his iPad and asked if she had seen the details of what seemed to be a job made for her. “If you don’t give this a shot, I think you’ll regret it. This is what you were born to do,” he said.
“I tried my best to say no, but Meredith has done so much to elevate the world of quilting. You can’t help but share her enthusiasm about the NQM and the quilting community,” Bonnie says. “So, I said yes, and after almost a year trying to get my museum legs, I see so many opportunities to celebrate today’s quilters. You walk into this place and it’s like you’re walking into an art museum.”
In her first week, Bonnie decided to hang out in the gift shop to connect with visitors. In one day, she met a couple from South Africa, another from Spokane, Washington, and someone from Barlow, all within about five minutes. Hosting visitors from 50 states and 40 countries, Bonnie is amazed at the distances people come to cross this visit off their bucket list.
Among the many unique experiences and programs at NQM, a current popular one is their exclusive VIP tours where the NQM director of collections, Laura Hendrickson, and Curator Rachael Baar take people into the curatorial space, show them how to care for, pack, and store these artistic treasures.
The experience Bonnie is most proud of is a new STEAM program for K-12 students. Last September, she got a first look at an exhibit now open by Victoria Findlay Wolfe, “Option Expedition,” an enormous quilt exhibit with bold colors and big designs. “It’s a geometry lesson if I’ve ever seen one,” Bonnie said. She asked Dr. Claire Fuller, Dean of the Jones College of Science, Engineering and Technology at Murray State University, if she would look at some quilts to see if they could collaborate to create a student experience. Dr. Fuller gathered the math and statistics instructors together to meet with Bonnie and Becky Glasby and the group-think resulted in the development of lesson plans that meet Kentucky’s geometry standards.
“It’s really exciting to see this develop,” Bonnie said. “We have had inquiries from a Southern Ohio Women in Engineering organization and a teacher from California. This demonstrates how we are looking at other ways our quilts can be used in education and programming, providing a rich experience for students and drawing them into a culturally important part of Paducah. When they come into the museum, they see a real application of geometric shapes that create beautiful patterns. When the kids become interested, they then talk to their families about it and visit the museum with their parents.”
The museum is also working with Dr. Charles Lu and his staff for second-year Materials Science students at the UK College of Engineering Paducah campus to study math and engineering principles exhibited by two quilters, Carol Bryer Fallert-Gentry and Victoria Findlay Wolfe. “Their final exam is a schematic drawing or creating their own quilt,” Bonnie explained. “This is another example of an educational collaborative that is an enrichment for students learning those concepts.”
Bonnie says the team at NQM are just scratching the surface of possibilities. “I feel like my role is to create greater connections between the museum and our community,” she added.” We are a national museum with internationally known artists. There is a lot more we can do to create meaningful connections that encourage companies and individuals to join with the work we are doing to preserve and display these beautiful quilts.”
Bonnie commented that she is truly having the time of her life. “People come in and are happy, excited, and delighted to be here. They are inspired and leave with such a positive sense of well-being. What we have here is truly a gift. If I feel stressed, I just walk in the gallery and marvel at the talent, creativity, and use of fabric, thread, and embellishments on this amazing collection of quilts.”
