This exhibition on Ludy Strauss will showcase her Artists' Quilts collaborations, where she enlisted contemporary artists to design quilts which were then realized by professional quilters. These quilts, crafted with innovative materials and techniques, challenged traditional views of quilting and fine art, creating groundbreaking pieces that toured extensively in the early 1980s across North America. The exhibition will also feature Strauss’s collection of quilts acquired in Atlanta, sold to her by dealers with the understanding that they were created by Black quiltmakers.

Remember 2020? The virus, lockdowns, masks, massive civil rights marches, raging fires, elections, and the fall of the world’s economy shook the world. Through quilts made to memorialize the events, we can grow to understand the impact of the tumultuous time on our history, our culture, our lives, and the experience of others.

Von Seggern, 6/27/25-1/10/26

These paintings honor the common threads between quilting and painting, using elements of still-life, abstraction, and figuration. Quilts are used both as a visual source and a narrative element, creating scenes that echo domestic spaces, religious influence, and family dynamics. These paintings attempt to engage with the rich visual language of quilting as a folk tradition and as a family practice. 

Beavers Gallery 5/14/25 - 9/13/25

Every year, students from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Japan’s Saitama University collaborate to create an International Quilt Museum exhibit based on what they have learned together about global quilt traditions. This year, students will focus on traditional Chinese textiles made to celebrate marriages and crafted to care for babies and children.

“America is now wholly given over to a damn mob of scribbling women, and I should have no chance of success while the public taste is occupied with their trash- and should be ashamed of myself if I did succeed.”

- Nathaniel Hawthorne, private letter to William D. Ticknor (January 19, 1855)

Ant trails in sidewalks. Mold growth on outdoor planters. Root systems of weeds. Children’s drawings. For Paula Kovarik, inspiration is found everywhere. Inspiration soon turns into threads, which Kovarik uses to tell stories. She is mesmerized by what the thread wants her to do, and creates in a stream-of-consciousness experience.

Pumphrey Gallery - March 26,2025 - Sept. 6, 2025

"Color Improvisations 3" features 42 powerful, colorful, larger-than-life quilts curated by artist Nancy Crow. The quilts represent 38 artists from the United States, Canada and New Zealand. They are newly made and illustrate excellence and innovation in contemporary quiltmaking through stunning use of color and extraordinary command of various stitched elements.

This exhibit is touring in Germany through the end of 2024. It premiers in North America at the International Quilt Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska, in March 2025 and then tours throughout North America through 2029.

For centuries, Chinese artisans have employed quilting, piecing, and appliqué to create and embellish textiles. Often, these techniques have been used to produce useful objects, such as clothing and bedding. In the past, sewing was generally a largely practical affair (though often also beautiful), or it was performed by ladies of leisure. Recently, however, Chinese artists and hobbyists—people of all classes and backgrounds—have started to make American-style quilts as a pastime and form of personal expression.