'American Quilts in Modern Age' opens May 23 at quilt museum

The quilts featured in the International Quilt Study Center and Museum's new exhibition, "American Quilts in the Modern Age, 1870-1940," showcase diverse examples of quilters' creations from a time of disenchantment with modern life. The exhibition will be on view May 23 through Nov. 15 at the museum, 1523 N. 33rd St.

Quilts reflect the times in which they are created, often mirroring societal shifts and transformations. Rapid change, bringing conflict between technological progress and nostalgia for a simpler time, affects today's culture. The same tension also shaped America's "modern age": the period between 1870 and 1940 when America was growing at an unprecedentedly rapid pace and struggling to come to terms with what it meant to be a modern, industrialized nation. Curators Marin Hanson, Patricia Crews and Jonathan Gregory have chosen quilts from the collection of the International Quilt Study Center and Museum to illustrate some of the responses quiltmakers had to these feelings of conflict and unease.

From pieced block to Crazy style to Colonial Revival examples, as well as one-of-a-kind creations, the full array of style and design appears in this exhibition covering seven decades of quiltmaking. The curators pay special attention to the modern and anti-modern tensions that persisted throughout this era of America's coming of age, from the Civil War to World War II. They also address the textile technology and cultural context of the times in which the quilts were created, with an eye to the role that industrialization and modernization played in the evolution of techniques, materials and designs.

The exhibition will open on the heels of publication of a book with the same title published by the University of Nebraska Press. It is the first of a series (funded in part by the Getty Foundation of Los Angeles) of major catalogues of the center's collection, featuring more than 500 quilts and more than 800 full color images. For more information on the book visit www.nebraskapress.unl.edu.

Public programming associated with this exhibition includes:

* June 14, 2 p.m., lecture, "Meet the Makers: American Quilts in the Modern Age", Crews, free with admission

* July 21, noon, Tuesday Talk, "Meet the Makers: American Quilts in the Modern Age", Crews, free with admission

* Aug. 18, noon, Tuesday Talk, "Quilts of the Modern Age" Hanson, free with admission

* Sept. 13, afternoon, bus and walking tour, "A Look at Colonial Revival Style through Architecture, Art and Decorative Arts," Wendy Katz and Ed Zimmer, registration required, call (402) 472-6549

* Sept. 15, noon, Tuesday Talk, "Fueled by Silk: Crazy Quilt Mania," Crews, free with admission

* Sept. 20 and 27, Log Cabin Quilting Workshop, registration required, call 472-6549

* Oct. 2, 5:30 p.m., lecture, "Modern Yet Anti-Modern: Two Sides of Late-19th Century and Early 20th Century Quiltmaking" Hanson, museum admission free 5-7 p.m.

* Oct. 11 and 18, American Girls in the Modern Age Quilting Workshop, registration required, call 472-6549

* Nov. 14, 3 p.m., lecture "Why We Quilt", Marianne Fons, reception follows, registration required, call 472-6549

Audio tours of this exhibition are free with admission.

The International Quilt Study Center and Museum was founded in 1997 and is the home of the largest publicly held quilt collection in the world. The museum opened in its new location in 2008. The privately funded, glass and brick "green" building houses more than 3,000 quilts, as well as state-of-the-art research and storage space, and custom-crafted galleries. The facility enhances the center's ability to pursue its mission to collect, preserve, study, exhibit and promote discovery of quilts and quiltmaking traditions from many cultures, countries and times.

The museum is open 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and 1 to 4:30 p.m. Sundays; closed Mondays and major holidays. Docent-led tours begin at 11 a.m. Wednesdays and 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Saturdays. Reserved guided tours for groups of 10 or more are available during public hours. Please schedule at least four weeks in advance. Call 472-6579 or e-mail iqsc-tours@unlnotes.unl.edu. Admission is $5 for adults (over 18); $3 for non-UNL students with ID and children; $10 for families; free for children under 5, museum members, and UNL faculty, staff and students with ID. For more information, call 472-6459 or visit www.quiltstudy.org. The International Quilt Study Center is an academic program of the Department of Textiles, Clothing and Design in the UNL College of Education and Human Sciences.