Ten Best Places in America to See Quilts

Gee's Bend Quilting Cooperative, Gee's Bend, Alabama.
In 2002, an exhibition of the art work opened at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, organized by the Tinwood Alliance and everything changed. The show went to the Whitney Museum in New York City and their art was hailed as "some of the most miraculous work of art America has produced."  Many of the quilt makers have become well known and have traveled extensively to talk about their community and their art. Many now have real incomes for the first time and their work, and its success, has helped to reunite and revive a dying community.

National Quilt Museum

National Quilt Museum, Paducah, KY, is a nationally recognized art museum that exhibits the finest quilting and fiber art in the world. In an average year they are visited by quilters and art lovers from all 50 states and over 40 countries worldwide. It is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Kentucky and one of the most respected and well known organizations among quilting enthusiasts.

The National Quilt Museum was established by Bill and Meredith Schroeder of Paducah and opened to the public on April 25, 1991. It is the world's foremost museum devoted to quilts and the only museum dedicated to today's quilts and quiltmakers. The main gallery is devoted to a rotating selection of the museum's permanent collection of over 300 quilts. Its two other galleries exhibit rotating fiber art exhibits throughout the year.