WATERLOO, ONTARIO

Creating the "Quilt Capital of Canada":

The Story of the Waterloo County & Area Quilt Festival

A wonderful example of a community-based creative tourism initiative that celebrates regional cultural heritage, creativity and craftsmanship.

THE WATERLOO COUNTY & Area Quilt Festival (WCAQF) is a non-profit organization that presents an annual 10-day Festival in May celebrating the art and heritage of quilting through 40 different events in 10 communities. This is the largest Festival of its kind in Canada, celebrating the rich quilting heritage of the Region and helping to promote Waterloo County as the "Quilt Capital of Canada."

Waterloo's Cultural Heritage: "The Quilt Capital of Canada"

The Waterloo Region has strong, historical German and Mennonite cultural ties. In the early settlement period, cloth supplies were limited and encouraged creative uses of available material. Old clothing and blankets - even flour sacks - were recycled to quilt together items such as bed coverings. Quilting was a practical necessity for the early settler women in the Region, and over time, the craft transformed to incorporate designs and patterns. As material became more available, quilting began to be used to decorate the home. The "Crazy Quilting Era," for example, used rich velvets and embroidery work.

Women in the Waterloo Region also used the quilting bee as a social outlet to battle the isolation of pioneer life. Quilting bees were also formed around religious gatherings. Even in the settler period, quilts were made for fundraising efforts. During the Second World War, people would donate money to have their family name embroidered on a quilt to help fund the war effort. These were known as "Red Cross Quilts."

"Red Cross Quilts" are still popular today in the Waterloo Region with its strong Mennonite culture of old and more modern day orders. The local Mennonite culture and its artistic influences are a strong attraction and component of our Quilt Festival. Visitors can take in our exhibits, and while in town, have a Mennonite experience.

The WCAQF raises public awareness and appreciation of the art and heritage of quilting in the Waterloo Region. It celebrates the social function of quilting within communities. The Festival is attended by quilters from across Canada and from around the world, making the Region a cultural tourism destination as "the Quilt Capital of Canada."

A Grassroots Initiative & the effort of many communities

The Waterloo County & Area Quilt Festival began 9 years ago when a group of local quilt shop owners, museums and quilt guilds joined together to celebrate the art and heritage of quilting in the region through an annual Festival. The Festival has grown from 12 events in 1996 to over 40 events (such as workshops, fashion shows, teas, lectures, quilt auctions, merchant mall and exhibits) in 10 local communities: Baden, Cambridge, Elmira, Guelph, Kitchener, New Hamburg, Shakespeare, St. Jacobs, Stratford and Waterloo. Over 4,000 volunteers work year-round to put the WCAQF together.

One of the unique aspects of the Festival is that the WCAQF organization acts as an umbrella for the 49 registered events. The organization is responsible for all aspects of marketing, promotion, advertising and administration of the annual quilt festival. It is also responsible for securing the necessary funds to maintain these operations through sponsorships, grants, and its own fundraising efforts. As a non-profit organization and the umbrella for the community events, the WCAQF acts as a one-stop source for visitor information, marketing and promotion. Each community event raises money or awareness for its own purpose. Any money raised by that community event stays with that organization for its own use.

Four of the 49 events are owned and operated by the WCAQF: the Ontario Juried Quilt Show, the World Piece Exhibit, the Quilt Gallery, and the Merchant Mall/Quilt Market. Community event organizers manage the remaining 45 events and maintain all of their gate receipts. Many of them use the gate receipts as fundraising for charities of their choice.

The Festival received a 3-year trillium grant to support the position of executive director and volunteer coordinator. It also receives small grants (under $5,000) from the City of Kitchener, the City of Waterloo, the Regional Municipality of Waterloo and the City of Cambridge.

The Impacts of Creative Tourism

Drawing crowds of over 35,000 annually (26,000 from outside the Waterloo Region), the Festival is now the largest festival of its kind in Canada and has been recognized as the largest visual arts festival in Ontario. Visitors come from Australia, Japan, Scotland, England, South Africa, Scandinavia, from across the United States and Canada. 40,000 visitors are expected for the 2004 Festival. In 2002, the WCAQF enhanced the economic vitality of its partnered communities by bringing in $1,911,849 to the area through tourism.

A large number of museums, art galleries and historic sites participate in the Festival. They all have seen the economic benefit of being a registered event and put on excellent exhibits each year.

The SARS experience last year devastated the Festival as the outbreaks took place just before and during the festival. While we suffered tremendous financial losses, the SARS experience did force us to enter into creative partnerships to survive to host the 2004 Quilt Festival.

The Cities of Waterloo and Kitchener, as well as the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, came through with $5,000 provisional grants for the Festival, and another $78,000 was secured from the Ministry of Culture.

With these funds, the Festival brought on a Group Tour Coordinator. Many of the group tours attended only one to three quilting events, but then take in other local attractions. All of the tourism partners were thrilled with the full-service tourism operations that the Festival offered and many of tourism partners benefited. The challenge will be finding the necessary funds to continue this critical position once the SARS grant has expired in November 2004.

The Festival also entered into a fabulous partnership with Visitor Magazine, a local tourist publication. Normally the Quilt Festival prints and distributes 18,000 copies of the Quilt Festival Guide. Distribution costs were very prohibitive and the Festival could not afford a mail out. Through partnership with Visitor Magazine, the Festival Guide was distributed as an insert in their Spring Publication complete with maps, Calendar of Events and Program details. The Festival was able to increase circulation from 18,000 to 40,000 and publish in full colour. The Festival focused its marketing strategies towards reaching a direct target market by doing sales missions to quilt guilds, quilt shows and quilt stores to raise awareness of the Festival and to encourage participation in the competitions / challenges and attendance at the Festival. Within the first month, the 40,000 copies were gone with quilting guilds and stores screaming for more. The Festival is entering into discussions with Visitor Magazine to increase circulation to 100,000 for 2005.

2005 is the 10th Anniversary of the Festival. In celebration, the Canadian Quilters Association (CQA) will be holding their annual conference at the Festival. The CGA conference will attract quilters from across Canada to the Festival and record crowds are expected as a result. Many quilters in Ontario are eager to attend the Conference  an opportunity to "wow" them and entice them to come back in subsequent years.

For more information:
Ana Kirkham, Director
Waterloo County & Area Quilt Festival
director@quiltcapitalfestival.com
www.quiltcapitalfestival.com

Photo: Mary Ev Wyatt. Fairies at the Bottom of the Garden. Quilt displayed at Threadworks. WCAQF Archives.

Profile by: Ana Kirkham, edited by Steven R. Dang (Creative City Network of Canada, 2004-2006).