The Hansen Museum in Logan, KS is pleased to announce Handstitched Worlds: The Cartography of Quilts, on view from February 24 through May 14, 2023.

Like many objects rooted in the everyday, quilts have the capacity to communicate stories about the context in which they were made and used. They represent maps of the quilters’ lives—living records of cultural traditions, rites of passage, relationships, political and spiritual beliefs, landmark events, and future aspirations. In the same way, a map is a pocket-sized abstraction of the world beyond what can be seen; in a quilt, a maker’s choice of fabric and design reveals insights into the topography of her world and place within it.

Handstitched Worlds: The Cartography of Quilts invites viewers to read quilts as maps, tracing the paths of individual stories and experiences that illuminate larger historic events and cultural trends. Spanning the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries, the exhibition brings together 18 quilts from the collection of the American Folk Art Museum, New York, representing a range of materials, motifs, and techniques—from traditional early American quilts to more contemporary sculptural assemblage. The quilts in Handstitched Worlds show us how this too-often overlooked medium balances creativity with tradition, individuality with collective zeitgeist.

Scheduled U.S. tour dates for Handstitched Worlds include: The Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI (June 12 – August 29, 2021); Washington State Historical Society, Tacoma, WA (September 17, 2021 – January 23, 2022); Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT (February 19 – May 14, 2022); Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN (June 18, 2022 – September 11, 2022); The Hansen Museum, Logan, KS (February 24, 2023 – May 14, 2023); Haggin Museum, Stockton, CA (June 15, 2023 – August 15, 2023); and Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, Laurel, MS (January 30, 2024 – April 21, 2024).

Handstitched Worlds: The Cartography of Quilts was organized by the American Folk Art Museum, New York and is toured by International Arts & Artists, Washington, DC.  Since 1961, the American Folk Art Museum has been the leading institution shaping the understanding of art by the self-taught through its exhibitions, publications, and educational programs. As a center of scholarship, it showcases the creativity of individuals whose singular talents have been refined through personal experience rather than formal artistic training. Its collection includes works of art from four centuries and nearly every continent—from compelling portraits and dazzling quilts to powerful works by living artists in a variety of mediums.  International Arts & Artists in Washington, DC, is a non-profit arts service organization dedicated to increasing cross-cultural understanding and exposure to the arts internationally, through exhibitions, programs and services to artists, arts institutions, and the public. Visit www.artsandartists.org.