“The Quilt Awakens” is a large-screen interactive installation created by Messam Multimedia in partnership with the Guelph Black Heritage Society. Using only hand tracking and voice; no controllers, no headsets. Visitors step into the journey of the Underground Railroad as told through quilt codes, the secret patterns once sewn into cloth to guide freedom seekers north.

Guided by Auntie Liza, a composite of the conductors and elders who risked their lives to lead others to freedom, you’ll learn to read the signs: the Crossroads, the Flying Geese, the North Star, the Shoofly house that meant safety, the urgent call of the Tumbling Blocks. Across eleven scenes, you gather what’s needed, disguise yourself for the road and finally cross the Conestogo River – arriving at Queen’s Bush, the Wellington County settlement where over 1,500 free and formerly enslaved Black people built farms, schools and churches beginning in 1820.