For Quilt, art has proven to be a powerful tool for awareness and togetherness.
Quilt—an undergraduate student-run literary magazine—hosted a collage-making event on March 22 in Kingston Hall where attendees had the opportunity to craft together—creating ongoing graduate student strike. In collaboration with Alyssa Vernon, ConEd ’22, founder of Queer Collage Collective, the event was set to promote the launch of NOSTOS, the magazine’s fifth full volume, with the launch approaching on April 9.
During the workshop, Kingston Hall room 313 was filled with chatter, as students dropped in and out to make collages. The desks were covered with stickers and supplies, with Vernon creating a collage kit for each attendee. The kits included information about where to send letters of for PSAC 901for if visitors wanted to write a letter of solidarity for PSAC 901 to Queen’s istration. Beyond the letter-making, the collages, PSAC-themed, and otherwise, proved to be a hit as the event lasted for four hours of crafty fun. The creative event managed to combine fun with awareness of current happenings on campus.
After hearing about Vernon’s “Queering Collage” series with Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Corey Martin, ConEd ’26, Quilt’s Managing Editor, along with Quilt’s Head of Events, Anna Sum, ConEd ’26, reached out to Vernon to begin planning the event.
The collage-themed afternoon was completely free and created for Queen’s students. Martin discussed that as a club, most of their events need a fundraising basis, but Quilt wanted to something different that was open to the student body to celebrate their publication
READ MORE: ‘Queering Collage’ series kicks off its year of monthly workshops
A NOSTOS themed collage event seemed like the perfect idea to the Quilt executive team. The volume is titled NOSTOS based on the ancient Greek word for return, as the volume features many stories about journeys, travelling, and nostalgia. To include some NOSTOS inspired motifs for the collaging, there was an ‘Odyssey themed’ magazine at the collaging get-together.
In PSAC 901, Unit 1’s, list of demands, the union asks clubs to relocate or cancel events held on campus. Since the NOSTOS collage-event had been organized before the strike happened, Quilt was unable to find a new venue in time but the team still wanted to show their for PSAC 901 protesters.
“I don’t think there’s such a thing as art that isn’t political. If we held the event on campus and ignored the ongoing strike, that would’ve been a political choice, but it would’ve sent the opposite message of what we believe,” Martin said in an interview with The Journal.
“What we believe is that graduate student workers at Queen’s deserve to make a living wage.”
Martin mentioned how they’re deeply grateful to their graduate Teaching Assistants (TAs) and Teaching Fellows (TFs) who have worked incredibly hard throughout their undergraduate education. This is reflected among the Quilt team with Editor in Chiefs, Audra Crago and Madeleine Vigneron, both ArtSci ’25, who gave a speech during the workshop calling awareness to the strike.
“We can’t enjoy all the provided by our graduate student advisors who choose to be part of our club—despite how busy graduate school is—or who us in our classes as TAs and TFs, and then ignore them when they ask us for help,” Martin said.
“Part of Quilt’s goal is to amplify the voices of marginalized students,” Martin explained. They emphasized since Quilt is built upon art and writing, which always inherently sends a message, they want to make sure their choices reflect the club’s morals and values.
Martin mentioned the importance for organizations to know what they believe in and what they stand for to make sure they’re acting in a way which demonstrates those beliefs.
“We were able to have this creative, fun event, but also spread awareness at the same time. Art is such a powerful tool for communication and persuasion—I think it’s great when creative organizations use that power to try and make a difference,” Martin said.
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Madeleine Vigneron
So proud of our Managing Editor! <3