We Gather at the Edge: Contemporary Quilts by Black Women Artists
Myrah Brown Green, In My Akwabaa Form, 2000, cotton fabric and cotton batt, 95 × 86 in. (241.3 × 218.4 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Fleur S. Bresler, 2023.40.19, © 2000, Myrah Brown Green
The artists featured in We Gather at the Edge honor the Black story quilt tradition with work that envisions a more just and connected world. The exhibition highlights SAAM’s recent acquisition of quilts from the collection of Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi and celebrates her legacy as the founder of the Women of Color Quilters Network.
Description
In 2023, the Smithsonian American Art Museum acquired thirty-five quilts from the collection of Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi. Mazloomi, who holds a doctorate in aerospace engineering, is a prolific artist, curator, and scholar. In 1981, she founded the African American Quilt Guild of Los Angeles, and then, in 1985, she founded the Women of Color Quilters Network, fulfilling the desire of isolated makers to connect and continue Black textile traditions.
The selection of quilts acquired by the museum and featured in this exhibition is remarkable in its scope and groundbreaking in its representation of Black history and culture as told with needle and thread. This exhibition honors the legacy of Mazloomi and celebrates members of the Women of Color Quilters Network.
The exhibition is curated by Aleia Brown, the David Julian and Virginia Suther Whichard Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at East Carolina University, and organized by Mary Savig, the Lloyd Herman Curator of Craft at SAAM's Renwick Gallery.
