Shelly Zegart

Shelly Zegart, a founding director of The Kentucky Quilt Project (1981) and The Alliance for American Quilts (1993), curates exhibitions here and abroad, lectures and writes on all aspects of quilt history and aesthetics. She was an organizer of Louisville Celebrates the American Quilt (1992), at which one conference focused on developing the Quilt Index. The Art Institute of Chicago acquired Zegart’s private quilt collection in 2002. Recent consulting and writing projects include: Quilts of Gee's Bend publications (2002); Mosaic Textiles: In Search of the Hexagon, Rouen, France (2003); and “Myth and Methodology: Shelly Zegart Unpicks African American Quilt Scholarship,” in the January / February 2008 issue of Selvedge. Zegart was among eight individuals featured in Quilting Transformed: Leaders in Contemporary Quilting in the United States – The 20th Century and Beyond (2007). An exhibition and catalogue, Shelly Zegart: Passionate About Quilts- Challenging Assumptions, Creating Change, Making Connections, at the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Fall 2008, highlights her 30 years of contributions to quilt understanding. Zegart was selected for Leadership Louisville (1985); was named a Woman of Distinction by the Louisville Center for Women and Families and an Associate Fellow of the International Quilt Study Center (2004); and in 2007 was elected to the board of the Louisville chapter of the World Affairs Council. Zegart holds a B.A. in Education from the University of Michigan.