Description

The Mississippi Museum of Art (MMA) seeks support for a major exhibition and publication of its holdings of quilts from the American South, recently expanded by a Kohler Foundation gift of over 130 quilts collected by the photographer and eminent Southern folklorist Roland L. Freeman (1936-1923). With the goal of illuminating the practices of Black, Southern, female quilters, and demystifying cultural narratives that have been assigned to their artistry, the exhibition will be hyper-local—organized with input from the MMA’s local communities of West and South Jackson—but will tour to three to five venues nation-wide. The exhibition of 150 quilts will be guest-curated by Dr. Sharbreon Plummer, co-founder of Stitch x Stitch, a multidisciplinary convening that examines the intersection of textile-based making, healing, and abolitionism, and the People’s Quilting Bee, a public humanities series and quilting circle. 
The project aligns with the AAP strategic goal 3a: To advance the care, documentation, publication, and installation of under-utilized collections for expanded access for wide-ranging communities.