The Empress Larkin is an accomplished and internationally-known art quilter, and by extension a teacher. (Pretty much all of the great art quilters work at it full time, and in order to do that most of them have to teach.) I’m not a quilter, but I’m pretty connected in the quilt world. Today I heard from an art quilter and teacher, also of great renown, a woman that both Larkin and I respect and admire. She related that she was recently en route to teach a class and was stopped at the border. It happens that this particular art quilter resides north of the old 49th and was teaching to the south, as opposed to Larkin who resides south and is delighted when she has the chance to teach north. Apparently the “logic” involved was that the Canadian teacher was taking work away from American citizens.

Yeah, right. First of all, students respond better if the teacher comes from far away. Quilters in Esquimault or Alberni or even White Rock respond more eagerly if they know the teacher is coming in from “the states”, and the reverse is true as well. This isn’t a recent development, Jesus commented on the phenomenon in the first century. As long as teachers from both sides of the line are allowed to teach on both sides of the line, nobody loses.

In fact, everybody gains. American quilters are in international competition, up against the best Kiwi quilters, the best from Oz, the best from Israel, the best from France, and for those readers that aren’t up on the realm of art quilts, that’s serious competition. If the goons on America’s border are keeping out the best foreign teachers, it’s American artists that lose. Sure, they could travel north for classes, but in these times it’s imperative that we conserve resources: Which makes more sense, for twenty Yanks to drive north to take a class or for one Canuck to drive south to teach it?

It’s not like internationally-known teachers are going to come to the US and become a drain on our schools and health care facilities; unless they’re from Somalia they have better health care waiting for them at home. They just want to share their ideas and get a check big enough to go home and get back to their art. In a country where upwards of 99% of the shoes are imported, to suddenly become protectionist in response to a handful of teachers is moronic. I don’t know the answers to the immigration question, but If I Were King the borders would absolutely be open to the best ideas from the rest of the world.