The International Quilt Museum’s exhibition, “Stitching and Sharing Culture: Molas from Panama’s Guna People” will feature complex textiles that share the rich imagery, both indigenous and cross-cultural, that Guna women have long incorporated into their stitched handiwork. The exhibition is being curated by University of Nebraska-Lincoln students in Anthropology 292: Special Topics, with help from students from Saitama University (Saitama, Japan), who will participate in a two-week internship at the IQM in early September.

Italian artist Annamaria Brenti has a degree in Mathematics from the University of Florence. While living in the U.S. in the 1980s, she became intrigued with quilting, ultimately focusing on pictorial quilts inspired by the Italian landscape and quilts that reference her love of mathematical theory. Her detailed cloth images of the Florentine countryside will be featured in this exhibition.

September 20, 2023 - February 17, 2024
Pumphrey Family Gallery

The ancient maharajas (kings) of northern India wore lavish robes in a variety of styles. In 2016, quiltmaker Geeta Khandelwal of Mumbai, India decided she wanted to make miniature versions of these traditional garments. Inspired by the ceremonial and everyday clothing of the Indian maharajas between the 1750s and the 1950s, Khandelwal dedicated her sewing expertise to creating royal robes that were approximately one-eighth of their original size.

World War I, also referred to as the “Great War,” greatly impacted American quiltmaking.  From April 1917 to March 1919, women created quilts and textiles that read as historic documents, revealing the many ways quiltmakers responded to the war: telling heartbreaking stories of loss, expressing rousing patriotic messages and raising significant funds to support the Red Cross. With their quiltmaking skills, women contributed thousands of quilts for one of the greatest benevolent efforts of the twentieth century.

For the last 3+ years, our world has undergone a traumatic sea change. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced individuals, communities, and entire countries to shift their perspectives, policies, and priorities.

Black at Work examines how quiltmakers represented in the International Quilt Museum collection have utilized the color black as a visual or conceptual element in their textiles. It positions black as a serious and active representational tool with the power to change or enhance the way we see, perceive, and understand the world around us.

April 12 - September 16, 2023
Pumphrey Family Gallery

The International Quilt Museums is pleased to feature a showcase of art quilt history developed by the Studio Art Quilt Associates. Layered & Stitched: 50 Years of Innovative Art showcases 50 art quilts by renowned master artists. Seminal works show the evolution of the art quilt from the earliest pioneers creating during the 1960s through to today’s artists experimenting with new forms, new materials, and new digital technologies.