Angela de Gregory, Engagement Manager for the Lightner Museum, informed Historic City News that a new exhibition, Handstitched Worlds: The Cartography of Quilts, will be on view from October 7, 2022, through January 20, 2023. The rare pieces on display invite viewers to read quilts as maps — tracing the paths of individual stories and experiences that illuminate larger historic events and cultural trends.
Handstitched Worlds comprises 18 quilts from the collection of the American Folk Art Museum in New York and covers the nineteenth through the twenty-first centuries. Several materials, motifs, and techniques are represented, including early American quilts and contemporary sculptural assemblage.
“An American pastime, quilting was a hobby promoted by museum founder Otto Lightner in his magazine Hobbies,” de Gregory notes. “Lightner envisioned the building, decorated with museum material such as historical quilts, fine needle work, and rich fabrics.”
The exhibition is presented at Lightner with support from the Community Foundation for Northeast Florida, along with the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture, the Florida Council on Arts and Culture, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Handstitched Worlds will open during a free Community Open House at the Lightner Museum on October 7, 2022, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.