This powerful, multi-generationally produced textile artwork embodies the values and aesthetics of the IntuiTeens, young artists who participate in Intuit’s annual summer youth program. In 2021, Intuit partnered with the Social Justice Sewing Academy (SJSA) to display the exhibition Connecting Generations through Cloth and interact with the IntuiTeens. SJSA founder Sara Trail and member Jeannine La Bate traveled from Oakland, Calif., to Chicago, where they led a tour of the exhibition, then met with the teens to facilitate conversations on social justice and demonstrate quilt-making techniques. In that workshop, each teen designed a quilt block addressing a social issue significant to them. With detailed instructions from each teen in hand, adult volunteer embroiderers and quilters from around Chicago embellished and assembled the blocks, resulting in this finished quilt.

Founded in 2017, SJSA is a non-profit organization that aims to empower individuals to utilize textile art for personal transformation and community cohesion and to begin the journey toward becoming an agent of social change.