The International Quilt Study Center & Museum kicks off its summer season with two new exhibits that highlight two diverse quilting traditions. “Regarding Nebraska by Elizabeth Ingraham,” is an art quilt installation that captures the state’s beauty, and “Off the Grid: The Bill Volckening Collection,” includes scrap quilts made during the quilting revival of the 1970s.
Both shows will be available for view during First Friday. The museum will offer free admission from 4-7 p.m. on June 2. Christine Martens, guest curator of “Sacred Scraps: Quilt and Patchwork Traditions of Central Asia” will give a gallery tour at 5:30 p.m. In addition, the museum will hold a garden party overlooking the Quilt House garden to celebrate Nebraska Wildflower Week.
“Regarding Nebraska” opens on June 2 and continues the museum’s celebration of the Nebraska Sesquicentennial. Elizabeth Ingraham, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of Art and Art History professor, traveled 9,000 miles throughout the state to create the pieces in this installation. She took photographs, made sketches and wrote reflections, all of which inspired the patchwork and quilted interpretations.
“With image and stitch I communicate the beauty and diversity of Nebraska, revealed over time and across distance,” Ingraham said. “I want to attend to what is unseen as well as what is visible and value what is lost as well as what persists.”
Ingraham will present “Behind the Stitches: The Fabric of Nebraska,” a gallery reading and special talk, at 11 a.m. on June 3. This in-gallery exclusive will be available free with admission.
“Off the Grid: The Bill Volckening Collection” opened May 26. Volckening is an avid collector of post-1950s quilts, and this exhibition features bright and off-beat examples from the 1970s. These polyester scrap quilts have often been ignored by other collectors, which makes this collection all the more unique. Throughout the exhibition, viewers will learn what drew him to each of the quilts on display.
“The fabrics in the first 1970s quilt I bought reminded me of my childhood, especially the summers spent at the community pool,” Volckening said. “As I accumulated more, many made from polyester double knit, the critics had plenty to say… I didn’t care. I was enthralled.”
Volckening will give a free public lecture later this summer on Aug. 4.
For more information on these and other current and upcoming exhibits at the IQSCM, visit http://www.quiltstudy.org. To view a listing of Nebraska Wildflower Week events, visit https://plantnebraska.org/news-events/2017-wildflower-week-events-in-june.html.
More details at: http://www.quiltstudy.org