Artists have long used their crafts to help them come to terms with grief and sorrow. The Norwegian painter Edvard Munch’s searing remembrance of his dying sister Sophie in The Sick Child comes to mind. Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten, composed by the Estonian Arvo Part, is a soulful dirge punctuated by tolling bells and darkly colored by Part’s experience of Soviet oppression. These artists, and many more, have made their pain palpable to viewers and listeners through their creative work.

Quilts and other heirloom textiles are important artifacts that can represent the history of a person, a family, a community, or a country. Preserving them is a way to maintain an important link to the past. Unfortunately, there are many agents, both natural and human-made, that can slowly (or quickly!) destroy these pieces of our history. The exhibition Quilts Under the Microscope presents a group of quilts that, after careful study, divulge some of the secrets of their past and help us determine the best to way to safeguard them for the future.

The quilts of South Asia are as diverse as the subcontinent itself.

Marseille: White Corded Quilting, the first major display in the world of all-white quilted and corded French needlework, explores its development in Marseilles, the fusion of technique with design imagery, and the integration of this needlework into other cultures as it was exported, adopted and re-transformed over three centuries in three continents.

As some have said about returning to a familiar place after a long absence, “You can never go back”—meaning that the one returning has changed and will find that the familiar now looks different. Revisiting ‘The Art Quilt’ returns to a 1986 exhibition titled “The Art Quilt,” curated by Penny McMorris and Michael Kile.

This exhibition of fifteen quilts celebrates the work of the Nebraska Quilt Project team - pioneering individuals who preserved an invaluable record of life in our state, told through the history of cherished quilts. 

Quilts by 21 contemporary artists were assembled from the permanent collection of the International Quilt Museum and complemented by several related works in various mediums owned by local collectors.

Head-on collisions of imagination and luxurious materials are credited for the creation of quilts in the exhibition "A Fairyland of Fabrics: The Victorian Crazy Quilt". This exhibition of lavish, over-the-top textiles and home interiors reflected a time when "more was more." Nineteen one-of-a-kind Victorian-era quilts from the center's collection were featured.

The quilts featured in the new exhibition American Quilts in the Modern Age, 1870-1940 showcase diverse examples of quilters' creations from a time of disenchantment with modern life.

Curator Janet Price chose 14 quilts made by Grace Snyder to be featured in this exhibition. While the quilts must be viewed in person to fully appreciate the artistry and workmanship of the Quilters Hall of Fame inductee Snyder, the images below provide a preview. With the exception "Flower Basket Petit Point," which is loaned by the Nebraska State Historical Society, all quilts in this exhibition are generously loaned by descendants of Grace Snyder.