MGCCC’s Harrison County Campus Fine Art Gallery is showcasing “Codes to Freedom,” featuring the quilts of Ravin Lovett of Jackson, from February 9 through March 13. The show examines themes of spiritual freedom, mental health, and inherited resilience.

With a unique eye for design, Ravin regularly creates personal and commissioned “storyteller quilts” filled with vibrant colors and bold shapes.

She became fascinated with quilting at a young age, watching her grandmother “Big Mama” Lueberta Hawkins make magic from scraps of cloth. Her grandmother taught her to quilt, and it was during difficult times in her life that she went back to an unfinished quilt that she and her grandmother worked on in the 1990s. She has been quilting professionally since 2000.

Ravin soon discovered her artistic abilities and graduated Cum Laude with a B. A. in English and Art Education from Tougaloo College in May of 2004. She later pursued and received her master’s degree in art education with an emphasis in art therapy from Florida State University in 2006. In 2022, she completed her Master of Arts in Biblical and Theological Studies from Belhaven University.

As an artist and art therapist, Ravin aspires to share her skills, knowledge, and gift of quilt-making with others. Art therapy is a human-helping profession that services all populations with mental, physical, emotional, and psychological health issues. It is her goal to share her experiences through quilt-making to help those who are in need achieve holistic health. In doing so, she will honor the tradition that her grandmother has left with her.

Quilting, along with her deep faith in God, has been integral part of her personal journey in dealing with trauma, anxiety, and repressed anger. She said her therapist incorporated her passion for her art form and art therapy into her own treatment plan. Ravin’s quilts showcase “my most intimate fabrics of my healing journey to optimal health.”

“I want to share my knowledge, my skills, with others. I want to teach them to quilt and help them find peace, too. Being an art therapist, a quilter, I can do that,” she said.

“Codes to Freedom” examines the quilt codes historically attributed to African American communities navigating the Underground Railroad. The quilt codes in her showcase would have historically functioned as visual communication systems—maps embedded in domestic textiles—that conveyed precise instructions for escape and survival. Displayed in plain sight, these quilts carried layered meanings decipherable only by those for whom the knowledge was intended.

For example, Lovett’s “Bear Claws” quilt contains symbols that would have instructed slaves to navigate through mountain trails. Following them would lead to food and water and keep them off the main roads.

The pattern of “Bowtie” would instruct slaves to change into better clothing so they might disguise themselves as free people.

The “Flying Geese” pattern helped navigate the escaping slaves north, instructing them to follow the migrating geese in the spring.

Rooted in both historical research and personal reflection, this body of work is guided by the biblical verse, “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:36, NKJV). For the artist, this scripture operates as a conceptual framework connecting spiritual freedom, mental health, and inherited resilience. The quilts serve as both historical references and contemporary documents of an ongoing journey toward liberation.

The art exhibit is free and open to the public and runs February 9- March 13. 

The Harrison County Campus is located at 2226 Switzer Rd, Gulfport. The art gallery is in the fine arts building, building D. Gallery hours are 8 AM to 3 PM Monday through Friday. For more information, contact Cecily.Cummings@mgccc.edu or 228-897-3909.