Artist as Quilt Maker (AQM) 2026

The Artist as Quilt Maker challenges the idea of quilts as purely domestic or decorative objects, presenting them instead as powerful works of contemporary art. Long associated with warmth, home, and inheritance, quilts are also visual records of lived experience—sites of innovation, mastery, storytelling, memory, and activism.

Quilting developed in contexts where women’s creative labor was excluded from formal art institutions. Denied access to training and recognition, women built rich artistic traditions within domestic spaces. Quilts require many of the same skills celebrated in painting and sculpture, including complex composition, sophisticated color relationships, material experimentation, and sustained technical discipline. Created to mark life events, ensure survival, or express personal vision, quilts have always carried intention and authorship.

Quilts also function as collective memory across cultures, preserving community histories where written records were scarce. Made from recycled materials and shared knowledge, they reflect resilience, labor, faith, and continuity. This exhibition foregrounds contemporary quilt artists who continue to expand the form, affirming quilting as a vital and ongoing artistic practice.

Eligibility
AQM is open to contemporary artists working in quilt-based practices. Hand-stitched works are especially encouraged; machine-stitched works will also be considered. Artists should submit images representing the work they intend to exhibit.