I went to Lincoln, Nebraska today for no other reason then I felt like seeing a Quilt museum or at least I thought it was a museum. I have always been very fond of quilts and have seen several shows and fairs in the past. There was no address in the AAA guide so I had to find the building on my own, which is always a problem. I used deductive reasoning and actually found the place. The building was very impressed with itself but really had very little gallery space which was a shame.
On the third floor they had quilts on the theme of stars. Each quilt used stars differently, a few I couldn't even find the stars. To be honest though some were beautiful and as far as I could tell they were hand stitched, some were even hand quilted. In one room were antique doll quilts, which were lovely. They were much simpler that adult quilts but some mothers made for their daughters, others were the first practice quilts made by little girls learning to quilt.
The second floor had the main gallery. The special show was by a woman named Jean Ray Laury. She was a very strong feminist and many of her quilts are very political. Some lost their quiltiness to her politics. When she went towards modern art she really hit the mark, but that is my taste plus she used colors that I like. The rest of the gallery had a show of name quilts which I didn't like. The quilts without the names were fine. The names were distracting or just plain ugly. As you can tell I am rather opinionated. After having driven for hours to get there I figure I am entitled.
The first floor has a collection of antique sewing kits and tools and toy sewing machines. They also have interactive programs about how quilts are maintained, archived and restored. This is a graduate school program that is being presented.
This was my one and only stop in Nebraska. I am now in Ames, Iowa.
No comments:
Post a Comment