The Montgomery County Community College and Pottstown-based Schuylkill River Heritage Area will present a traveling juried art quilt exhibit, “Piecing Together a Changing Planet,” which illustrates how pollution and climate change have affected national parks.

The 26-quilt exhibit has been on display at national parks and partner venues since 2014, and is continuing its journey across the country in celebration of the National Park Service’s Centennial Anniversary this year.

Since the exhibit started, it has been seen by nearly a quarter-million people, according to Gary Bremen, a park ranger who helped to coordinate the exhibit.

The exhibit will be held at MCCC’s Fine Arts Gallery, North Hall, on 16 High Street in Pottstown from Oct. 3-28 with an opening reception Wednesday, Oct. 5 from 5-7 PM. Both the exhibit and the reception are free and open to the community.

The quilted artwork was created by Florida members of the Studio Art Quilt Associates, a 3,000-member international organization dedicated to the promotion of art quilt. In addition to traditional stitching and piecing, this type of quilting features graphic design and layering of pieces of fabric, creating a dramatic, three-dimensional effect. As a result, butterflies appear to flutter from treetops, while glaciers seem to melt into oceans.

According to exhibit curator Maya Schonenberger, “the artists’ goal is to help open people’s eyes to the beauty of nature that surrounds them, and share their concern for its loss.”

Over the years, climate change, particularly the warming of the atmosphere, has created many changes in the environment, which are often most evident in America’s national parks.

“Stories of how artists have played a crucial role in environmental protection are legion,” said Bremen. “The arts convey beauty, fragility, and urgency in ways that touch the heart and soul, thus opening the mind as well.”

The Fine Arts Gallery is open Monday through Thursday from 8 AM-9:30 PM and Friday 8:30 AM-4:30 PM.