June 12 – August 29, 2021
Quilts are a narrative art form, featuring themes that are political, spiritual, communal, and commemorative. Quilts are infused with history and memory, mapping out intimate stories and legacies through a handcrafted language of design. Handstitched Worlds: The Cartography of Quilts is an invitation to read quilts as maps, tracing the paths of individual histories that illuminate larger historic events and cultural trends. Spanning the nineteenth to twenty-first centuries, this insightful and engaging exhibition presents twenty-three quilts from the collection of the American Folk Art Museum in New York City. The quilts represent a range of materials, motifs, and techniques, from traditional early American examples to contemporary sculptural assemblages. Handstitched Worlds demonstrates how this often overlooked medium balances creativity with tradition and individuality with collective zeitgeist. Like a roadmap, these unique artworks offer a path to a deeper understanding of America’s cultural fabric.
Handstitched Worlds: The Cartography of Quilts was organized and toured by International Arts & Artists, Washington, DC.
Exhibition Highlights





Thanks to the members, donors, grantors, and sponsors who support exhibition and programs. Exhibitions and programs are supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts. Marketing supported in part by City of Wausau Room Tax funds. Support for hands-on art-making supplies comes from Wilmington Trust and the M&T Charitable Foundation.