A COVID-19 HOPE Quilt event sponsored by Art of the Matter
Project led by Art of the Matter
A COVID-19 HOPE Quilt event sponsored by Art of the Matter
Art of the Matter, Inc.
who we are
Art of the Matter, Inc. is geographically located in the rural and historic community of Purcellville, Virginia. We are committed to supporting the arts using a tiered top-down approach, from national art institutions such as the Smithsonian, to Virginia local and regional organizational art centers and councils.
The majority of projects have focused on the Commonwealth of Virginia and DC metropolitan areas, with the exception of the COVID-19 HOPE Quilt, which has become a national memorial project. Our targeted demographics are underserved and diverse populations in the Commonwealth, as well as DC metropolitan and rural communities.
Use the links to explore Art of the Matter's different project areas:
News and Events
New Collaboration:
Mobile Hope
Covid Hope Quilt is proud to collaborate with Mobile Hope, a local group dedicated to empowering homeless and at-risk youth. We will be working together to decorate and display a set of HOPE letters in fall of 2023. Learn more at this link about their work.
Art of the Matter on TV!
NBC4 Washington
On August 3, 2023, NBC Washington covered the story of Art of the Matter's Flagship Project, the Covid Hope Quilt!
Click to watch the full clip.
featured Projects
What We Do: Participation and Inclusion
By partnering with other nonprofits like ours—high-impact and low-overhead—we maximize our ability to reach more individuals and communities. We work collaboratively with local governments and community leaders focused on urban renewal and economic development to encourage community expansion of art projects. We focus on spreading a message of hope through a variety of community-supporting work.
We began the COVID-19 HOPE Quilt project in 2020 to reach not only local communities in Virginia and Washington, but also others across the nation. We have focused our efforts on gathering participants using grassroots approaches, including online messaging, word of mouth, and soliciting volunteers at events where the Letters of HOPE have been displayed.
We’ve encouraged people of all demographics to contribute panels to our Quilt display, but most particularly those with family and friends who are frontline workers or who have suffered or died from COVID. The communities most hard-hit during the pandemic have been low-income, rural, and people of color, and thus most of our collaboration has been with those groups.
Over three years after the start of this project, we continue to grow the HOPE Quilt (now over 20 quilts), and continue to work towards the development of a national memorial.
Effect of Covid-19 on Operations
& The Path Forward
For our COVID-19 HOPE Quilt project, we used many imaginative ways to reach contributors during a time of isolation. We created COVID-safe home art kits with templates, paints and supplies with self-addressed return envelopes for families and students to use as home projects. We held pop-up art events in DC’s Freedom Plaza and provided supplies & materials at the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials on the National Mall.
We held “Paint-a-Panel” events for students of all ages and talents to help them process their emotions on the effects of the pandemic. We collaborated with multiple schools, from grade school to universities, to provide a way for students to express themselves through art. Art teachers at private and public grade schools and Riverside High School created class curriculums for creating fabric and digital art panels so that their students could contribute to the quilt collection. We delivered art supplies to seniors homes in Virginia and Florida to encourage residents to participate. As one of the most vulnerable groups, they were severely affected by the pandemic. With the supplies, we enabled them to create panels honoring medical workers and delivery personnel and memorializing those in their community who were lost to the pandemic.
Using social media and QR codes, we created online galleries that allow art and stories to reach people across the nation, well beyond the geographic locations of contributors. People can easily contribute to the quilt by uploading their panel using our online submission form. People of all ages and walks of life, from age 5 to 95, have participated.
During the darkest periods of the pandemic, a first set of HOPE letters was displayed at the Reston Hospital, in Reston, Virginia. Covered with over 150 panels of gratitude to the doctors and nurses, it was lit 24 hours a day so workers and patients traveling to and from the hospital could receive encouragement and honor. Del Ray Artisans in Alexandria helped us create another set of HOPE letters, measuring 9.5 feet tall by 30 feet wide. These large white letters were installed on their outdoor fence and gradually covered with messages of hope and inspiration by local professional artists economically affected during the pandemic. The public has been able to purchase original artwork on letters directly from the contributing artists. Due to the overwhelmingly positive response, Reston hospital extended this exhibition for several months.
Hope and Healing at
Inova Schar Cancer Institute
In 2022, Art of the Matter worked with the Inova Schar Cancer Institute in Fairfax Virginia to install a special HOPE sculpture. These letters present inspiring artwork created by Inova Schar staff, physicians and patients, helped by the Artists-in-Residence from the Smith Center for Healing and the Arts. Explore our gallery to learn more about the artwork, and read in-depth stories about the artists.