Frist Art Museum Presents Extraordinary Collection of Quilts Reflecting 300 Years of American History

Fabric of a Nation: American Quilt Stories from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

June 27–October 12, 2025

NASHVILLE, Tenn., May 21, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Frist Art Museum presents Fabric of a Nation: American Quilt Stories from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston an exhibition that celebrates aesthetic and technical achievements in quilting as well as the lives of their makers. Organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Fabric of a Nation will be on view in the Frist's Upper-Level Galleries from June 27 through October 12, 2025.

Featuring nearly 50 exceptional quilts and coverlets drawn from the MFA's premier textile collection, the exhibition demonstrates how this art form, considered timeless and democratic by many, has evolved over more than 300 years in the United States and continues to develop today. Made by a diversity of artistic hands and minds, many underrecognized, the medium offers an opportunity to tell an array of rich stories within our shared and complicated history from the 18th century up to 2021.

Long admired for their utility, beauty, and design, as well as the sense of community they inspire, quilts have also taken on different purposes and meanings throughout history. First used to provide warmth and comfort as decorative bedcovers, quilts gained greater public visibility in the mid-19th century as makers began to see themselves as textile artists. "Today, quilters have expanded the medium to encompass a wide range of techniques, materials, and imagery," writes Frist Art Museum Senior Curator Katie Delmez. "And some contemporary artists are using the quilt form to bring attention to social justice issues and to address difficult moments from the nation's past and present. But all of the works in this show share one essential characteristic—the power to tell stories."

Quilts and coverlets made by Americans of European ancestry will be shown with those created by Black and Indigenous Americans. Comparative examples from Britain and India will invite a broader understanding of five centuries of global textile production and trade. The voices of living artists are also heard throughout this exhibition's audio tour, bringing new perspectives to this celebrated and historic mode of artistic expression.

Organized into seven thematic sections, the exhibition opens with the introductory questions, "What is American? Who is American?" adjacent to two quilts that advocate for expanding voting rights and whose designs are based on the American flag. One advocates for the right of women to vote. The other, Quilt: Vote, Housetop Variation (1975) by Irene Williams, a Black American quilter from Gee's Bend, Alabama, speaks to the obstacles that Black Americans have had to overcome to exercise the most basic right of citizenship.

More is often known about the people who owned and used early quilts than about the creators themselves. The section "Unseen Hands" seeks to examine the typically unrecognized labor involved in the production of quilts and their materials. Whole Cloth Quilt, for example, was created by an unidentified maker between 1750 and 1800 with fabric made from cotton that was grown and harvested by enslaved laborers. It was then dyed with indigo, which was also produced and made into dye by enslaved people. The following section, "Crafting a Nation," focuses on the second quarter of the 19th century and shows how the industrial revolution changed how textiles were made. While quilts were still constructed by hand during this period, their fabrics were often produced in factories. 

"Conflict Without Resolution" features works that address the end of the antebellum period and the Civil War, and the ongoing legacy of racism and resistance from the civil rights movement to Black Lives Matter. "The so-called Zouave quilt (1863–64) in this section demonstrates how pervasive Civil War imagery was in American culture at the beginning of the conflict, as well as the tendency to romanticize soldiers, Union and Confederate, bravely marching off to war in colorful uniforms," writes Delmez. "The contemporary quilts in this section such as Carolyn Mazloomi'sStrange Fruit II (2020), a direct reference to the anti-lynching protest song Billie Holiday recorded in 1939, demonstrate how quilts can be used to tell narratives about violent injustices, both historic and ones that continue today."

In the late 19th and early 20th century, quilting evolved from a functional necessity to a popular pastime. "Quilts as Art" features works that were made to be displayed and admired for their beauty—to be seen on walls rather than beds. The first world's fair in the United States—the Centennial International Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876—celebrated the nation's 100th birthday by highlighting the progress it had made and what its innovative industries and arts promised for the future. In this section, a brightly colored woven coverlet depicts the fair's art gallery that was mass-produced as a souvenir of the fair, which attracted nearly ten million visitors over its six-month run. "Few American museums existed, making international expositions and smaller state and county fairs important places of cultural expression and exchange," writes Delmez. "Many quilters made works to be displayed in public forums like those during this time."

As quilting became accessible to a wider range of makers in the early and mid-20th century, quilt guilds formed, patterns were published in newspapers, and making quilts became both a national pastime and a cottage industry associated with a nostalgic image of the nation's past. On the section "Modern Myths," Delmez writes, "Collectors visiting rural communities such as that of the Amish in Pennsylvania were attracted to vibrant, handcrafted quilts that conveyed a timelessness set apart from modern American culture. They reinforced the myth that this was a uniquely American art form, although quilting traditions arrived with immigrants to the United States."

The final section, "Making A Difference", looks at how quilt makers have melded artistry with activism to respond to historical events or their own personal experiences. "These artworks stand out for their beauty and innovation, as well as their ability to speak to contemporary issues such as feminism, racism, environmental justice, and gun violence," writes Delmez. In To God and Truth (2019), contemporary artist Bisa Butler recreated an 1899 photograph of one of the baseball teams of one of the oldest HBCUs, Morris Brown College in Atlanta, through life-size portrayals of the student athletes. Using handwoven Kente cloth and Nigerian hand-dyed batiks, Butler honors their individuality and important role in Black American history.

In conversation with Fabric of a Nation, three contemporary textile works by Nashville-based artists Shabazz and Ashley Larkin will be on display in an adjacent space as part of the Frist's Art in the Atrium series. The works share personal stories related to their own family—the joining of lives and communities through marriage as well as the transmission of values and traditions from parents to children—and offer a reflection on the vulnerable position of Black men in the United States.

Exhibition Credit

Organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Supporter Acknowledgment

Supported in part by the Sandra Schatten Foundation

The Frist Art Museum is supported in part by the Frist Foundation, the Tennessee Arts Commission, Metro Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Connect with us @FristArtMuseum #TheFrist

About the Frist Art Museum
Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the Frist Art Museum is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit art exhibition center dedicated to presenting and originating high-quality exhibitions with related educational programs and community outreach activities. Located at 919 Broadway in downtown Nashville, Tenn., the Frist Art Museum offers the finest visual art from local, regional, national, and international sources in exhibitions that inspire people through art to look at their world in new ways. Information on accessibility can be found at FristArtMuseum.org/accessibility. Gallery admission is free for visitors ages 18 and younger and for members, and $20 for adults. For current hours and additional information, visit FristArtMuseum.org or call 615.244.3340.

About the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
This exhibition is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), where art inspires connections. Showcasing ancient artistry and contemporary masterpieces, the Museum's collection of nearly 500,000 works tells a multifaceted story of the human experience that holds unique meaning for everyone. For more than 50 years, the MFA's traveling exhibition program has partnered with museums and cultural institutions across the globe to share artworks and scholarship. We invite you to experience the MFA in Boston, online at mfa.org and around the world.

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