In Living Color

Local artists, historians and county officials hope that 2025 becomes the first year in a long legacy of reviving an American tradition in Central Wisconsin.

Barn quilts are an American folk art believed to have been introduced roughly 300 years ago in Pennsylvania by Dutch immigrants as a means of decorating their barns. 

Consisting of colorful, geometric patterns that resembled quilts — hence the name — barn quilts not only served as decorations and means of self expression, but they provided farmers with a means of communicating with passers-by.

“That area used barn quilts as signals to anyone on the Underground Railroad, so certain designs on certain barns meant, ‘You’re going to make a left soon to get to Canada,’ or ‘This farm is a safe haven,’” said Jacquelyn Tolksdorf, who runs Central Wisconsin community art nonprofit Rise Up.

“It started to trickle up to Wisconsin and the Midwest,” she continued. “Those designs all mean something. There’s designs that mean they’re going to retire soon. There’s designs that mean good luck with growing and stuff like that.”

Tolksdorf wants to educate Central Wisconsinites on barn quilts as part of an effort to reintroduce the tradition in the area, a collaboration between VisitWausau and Rise Up, the organization behind several murals around Wausau. 

“Jodi [Maguire] at VisitWausau wanted to bring back the revival of barn quilts because if you go to places like Shawano, they have hundreds of barn quilts that they showcase through the tourism board,” said Tolksdorf.

After 15 years of its own barn quilt project, Shawano County brands itself as “Wisconsin’s barn quilt capital.” Shawano’s iteration of the project has three objectives: to encourage preservation of the county’s old barns; to promote tourism for the county; and to partner with community organizations seeking community service projects.

“Me and Jodi each have different personal attachments [to this project],” Tolksdorf explained. “From the art side of things, I’d like to bring back the tradition and knowing what the designs mean. The whole idea of a barn quilt is the whole community got together to celebrate a new farm in town…”

Central Wisconsin’s Barn Quilt Revival Project plans to operate much the same way, with six area farms receiving new barn quilts painted by the community.

“Jodi comes from a farming background and, with tourism, works with agricultural initiative, and it’s been a really rough 6 months for farmers,” said Tolksdorf. “It was definitely a year it felt like to get this kicked off.”

Rise Up held a presentation on April 6 to promote the project. Turnout was “decent,” according to Tolksdorf — six farms attended in person and about as many attended online. With that in mind, Tolksdorf expects to fulfill the goal of granting six farms with barn quilts this year, but the application will remain open until April 17 even for those who didn’t attend.

As for who can apply, Tolksdorf said that as long as someone is a farmer — active or retired — they are eligible, and they don’t necessarily need to get the quilt painted on a barn.

“It can be an old barn, a new barn, a pole shed. It can be someone’s house if they’re farming,” she said.

The barn quilts are expected to be erected around June.

While the project is funded for this year, Tolksdorf said that the team is looking for a business interested in sponsoring it.

“We really want to do this every year to get the tradition kicked off,” Tolksdorf said. “The community will come together to paint it... It’s all going to be based around the community and supporting local farmers.”

Tolksdorf also plans to take care that no infrastructure is damaged in the painting of the quilts, as has happened in places like Stevens Point following the erection of murals on historic properties.

“Murals that are painted directly onto surfaces don’t last as long, so our nonprofit was taught by Mural Arts of Philadelphia how to use military parachute paper to wallpaper,” said Tolksdorf. “The parachute paper is not see-through at all, but it’s a little porous so that the brick or the concrete or the wood can breathe so that we don’t create any rot.”

Applications are open to any farms who want new barn quilts, have quilts that don’t mean what they should or would like to have a weathered quilt restored. 

To apply, fill out the online form at https://forms.gle/rFhn1fUQdEcm6fns6. For more information on the project, or if you’re interested in sponsoring or donating to it, call Program Coordinator Jaquelyn Tolksdorf at 715-497-6142 or email her at art@riseupart.org. Applications are open through April 17.