Helen Claire Vlasin (1932 - 2012) was born in Spalding, Nebraska, and was a graduate of St. Elizabeth Hospital School of Nursing in Lincoln, Nebraska; Central Michigan University; and Michigan State University. Claire’s initial educational experiences led her into nursing, but she later switched paths, turning to educational administration. Her family, including her beloved husband Ray and her children Theresa, Celia, Ilene, John, and Marie, as well as her large extended family, were another strong focus of her life.  

The International Quilt Museum is pleased to showcase the important work of Mourning Hope Grief Center, a Lincoln-based organization that supports and comforts youth and their families in times of grief. Since 1994, Mourning Hope has provided free support groups, community education, grief resources, and referrals to grieving children, teens, young adults, and families who have lost someone. 

The quilts of Nancy Crow: Cloth, Culture & Context represent the artist’s exploration of the quilt medium over the last thirty years. From early pieces that draw upon classic American quilt patterns to her later freeform, abstract compositions, Crow has developed a body of work that continues to confront, expand, and redefine her vision. She constantly seeks visual inspiration, using her discriminating eye to draw influence from the natural world, the built environment, and textiles and various handicraft traditions from cultures worldwide.

The quilts in this exhibition celebrate the eye-catching visual effects that makers create using stripes. The quilts illustrate the dynamic, appealing nature of the stripe. Medieval history scholar, Michel Pastoureau suggests that the striped surface calls for attention in a way that other surfaces don’t. Referring to the ambiguous relationship between foreground and background that stripes create, he asks, “Does the eye see that which fools it more clearly?” Are eyes attracted to striped surfaces because they are more complex?

The star is an important symbol in traditional Lakota mythology and art. The story of the morning star describes how an old medicine man became the morning star after his death. The morning star was considered to have more power than the sun or moon because of the experience the medicine man gained from living on earth. Consequently, the morning star was a symbol for wisdom and understanding.

Growing up on a Minnesota farm and living in New York City for the past two decades has given Victoria Findlay Wolfe a unique perspective in her art. Indeed, her work often moves cyclically between references to her rural familial roots and her current cosmopolitan locale. She is both a woman with strong Midwestern sensibilities and a leader of the now-global Modern Quilt movement. Combined, these attributes result in a body of work she aptly describes as “traditions made modern.”

As a young girl, Mary Catherine Lamb (1949-2009) saved mementos from her Roman Catholic childhood in Oakland, California. Years later, Lamb was stirred by the “holy cards” and other faded religious relics she stumbled upon when clearing out the family home. By this time a disaffected Catholic, Lamb began to make art quilts through which she could, as she said, “embrace the images in a completely different way, on my own terms.” 

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the charter that established the University of Nebraska as the state’s land grant institution of higher education. 

When the Soviet Union experienced severe economic, political, and social turmoil in the 1980s, President Mikhail Gorbachev responded by instituting a new policy of glasnost, “openness and transparency.” Although the U.S.S.R. fell apart in 1991, the spirit of glasnost continued in post-Soviet Russia. One result was increased dialogue with the United States, which led to groundbreaking cultural exchange programs, including quiltmaking.

“Make it new.”
Ezra Pound

In this digital age, to make art by hand has gained fresh meaning. Now more than ever, art that emphasizes physical presence has a powerful resonance. New art made with old technology is imbued with a sense of continuity that links our own lives to the largeness of history. In a familiar context, personal invention can stand out with striking clarity. This is especially true of art made with textiles.