International Quilt Museum

The International Quilt Museum (formerly the International Quilt Study Center and Museum) is a textile museum at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in Lincoln, Nebraska. It opened in 2008 and houses the largest known public collection of quilts in the world.^[1]

International Quilt Museum

Former name	International Quilt Study Center and Museum
Established	1997
Location	1523 N. 33rd Street Lincoln, Nebraska
Coordinates	40°49′43″N 96°40′25″W
Type	Textile museum
Website	www.internationalquiltmuseum.org

History

The International Quilt Museum was founded in 1997 when native Nebraskans Ardis and Robert James donated their collection of nearly 950 quilts to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.^[2] Their contribution became the centerpiece of what is now the largest publicly held quilt collection in the world.

Through private funds from the University of Nebraska Foundation and a lead gift from the James family, the center opened in its new location on 33rd Street in 2008. The glass and brick "green" building, designed by Robert A. M. Stern Architects, houses the quilts, a research and storage space, educational displays, and custom-crafted galleries where collections and special exhibitions are shown to the public on a rotating basis. A large outdoor sculpture titled Reverie was dedicated outside the entrance.^[3]

In 2015, the museum opened a privately funded expansion that doubled its collections storage and gallery space. In July 2019, its name was changed to the International Quilt Museum.^[4]

The University of Nebraska–Lincoln's Department of Textiles, Merchandising and Fashion Design in the College of Education and Human Sciences offers a master's and doctorate degree in material culture and textiles studies and a graduate certificate in quilt studies.

Collection

The collection includes early examples of American and European quilts as well as contemporary studio quilts and international quilts. It numbers more than 9000 quilts from over sixty countries, dating as far back as the seventeenth century.^[5] Faculty and curatorial staff, visiting scholars and graduate student researchers study the world's quilt heritage at the center, and an ongoing acquisitions program seeks to document the full scope of global quilting traditions. The museum's current focus is expanding the scope of its international and contemporary collections.^[5]

The museum publishes catalogues to accompany some of its exhibitions, which have included Wild by Design, Quilts in Common, American Quilts in the Modern Age 1870 - 1940, Perspectives: Art, Craft, Design and the Studio Quilt, and Marseille: The Cradle of White Corded Quilting.

Gallery

• 
  Exhibition of Korean Pojagi patchwork and textiles from the collection of Soon-Hee Kim of Korea.
• 
  Exhibition "Quilts in Common"