STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — Artist or not, every Steamboat Springs High School senior has a unique opportunity to be part of history while being featured at the Steamboat Art Museum.

Each student is encouraged to fill a 6-inch by 6-inch square piece of paper with something that is meaningful or representative of themselves. The squares will then be pieced together to make a paper quilt that will be part of the museum’s summer exhibition, “The Art of the Quilt.”

“Throughout history, quilts comfort, tell stories, honor events and are a living representation that the whole is stronger than the sum of the parts, just like the Class of 2020,” said Steamboat Art Museum Executive Director Betse Grassby.

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“The 2020 Senior Patchwork Quilt” is the brainchild of Grassby’s neighbor, Tai Nass, who teaches middle school and high school. Nass remembers teaching preschool to many of the seniors in this year’s graduating class.

“I’ve really watched them grow up, and I was sad there were so many things they didn’t get to do,” said Nass, an English language learners teacher. “This is something different to honor them.”

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Dona Steele, a local artist and the museum’s education coordinator, asks seniors to place their squares in a box that sits outside the high school’s front doors, just behind the trash can. She’ll be collecting the squares each day and putting them together to showcase in the museum’s Youth Gallery during this summer’s quilting showcase.

“It doesn’t have to be anything fancy,” Steele said. “We’re asking each student to submit a 6-by-6-inch memory of 2020. It can either be a class photo — you can even photocopy it — or a picture of you and your friends or sports group, your family, your pet.”

“A lot of quilts started out as storytelling, which is what this is going to be — the story of the Class of 2020,” Steele added.

Whether submitting a photo, favorite poem or personal art, every participating senior will be entered in a drawing for $100 in Chamber Bucks donated by Steamboat Magazine to spend locally.

Seniors need to put their name and phone number on the back of the 6×6 paper and autograph the front as they like.

Steele asks that seniors try to get their 6×6 quilt square in by June 5.

The Art of the Quilt showcase will run from June 26 to Sept. 6, and after the show, the 2020 Senior Patchwork Quilt will be donated to Steamboat Springs High School.

Frances Hohl is a contributing writer for Steamboat Pilot & Today.