Alliance History
The Alliance for American Quilts is a non-profit organization founded in 1993 to unite the varied elements of the quilt world around a shared vision of preserving and disseminating the stories of quilts and quiltmakers. Recognizing quilts as both works of art and as pieces of history, this vision celebrates quilts because they tell stories worth sharing. Quilts matter!
Americans have been making quilts for more than two centuries; today quilts old and new continue to touch American lives in diverse ways-as family heirlooms, as expressions of creativity, as works of art, and even as gifts from generous strangers. Millions of people around the world are making quilts, including a body of highly accomplished contemporary artists who have chosen quilt making as their medium. More than ever, the quilting community has become the quilting world, with diverse interests, interpretations, and inspirations.
Although various museums and libraries scattered in different parts of the United States devote some or all of their resources to specific aspects of quilts and quiltmaking, the large and growing body of information about this subject is diffused and not easily accessible. Recognizing the need for more comprehensive and unified access, The Alliance and its Center For The Quilt are actively recording, preserving, and sharing the stories, documents, and ephemera of quilts and quiltmakers.
A Brief History of The Alliance for American Quilts
In 1993, recognizing the need to centralize information about quilts and quiltmaking, four women joined forces to create The Alliance for American Quilts. This project drew together Shelly Zegart and Eunice Ray of The Kentucky Quilt Project, and Karey Bresenhan and Nancy O'Bryant, corporate officers of Quilts, Inc. and founders of the non-profit Texas Quilt Search. With the establishment of The Alliance, the founders combined their shared dedication to quilts with their extensive experiences shaping the quilt industry and quilt scholarship in this country. In 1981 the Kentucky Quilt Project began to develop scholarship, publications, and exhibitions about quilts and their creators, jumpstarting the state quilt project movement. Quilts, Inc. has been the primary catalyst behind the development of the international quilt industry and has worked for more than 20 years to foster the public appreciation of contemporary and historic quilts around the world.
The Alliance's founders soon gathered a distinguished group of quilt scholars, artists, experts, and enthusiasts to develop a vision for gathering, disseminating, and facilitating the interpretation of the great body of information about quilts and quiltmakers. The Alliance developed projects that tap into the full potential of quilts and inform the study and understanding of history, the arts, and culture. Many of these original visionaries continue to work together to advance the projects and programs of The Alliance through their membership on The Alliance Board of Directors.
In its short history, The Alliance has made significant progress toward its goals. It has launched a series of partnerships and projects that are preserving, documenting, and sharing the stories of quilts and quiltmakers, including The Quilt Index, H-Quilts, Quilters' S.O.S.-Save Our Stories, Boxes Under the Bed™, Quilt Treasures, and Regional Centers for The Quilt. The Alliance's rapid and effective implementation of these projects was possible due to the leadership and resources of many individuals and organizations that have worked with quilts and quilt study for more than 30 years. Organizations such as the American International Quilt Association, the American Quilter's Society, the American Quilt Study Group, the National Quilting Association, state and regional quilt documentation projects, various grassroots guilds and associations, and others have developed a critical mass of interest, information, and resources that will all support the vision of The Alliance for American Quilts.
Founders
Karey Patterson Bresenhan is president of Quilts, Inc., which owns conferences and expositions worldwide, including International Quilt Market and International Quilt Festival (Houston, Chicago, and Long Beach). A former quilt shop owner, she built the Festival into Houston's largest convention and was named one of Houston's top 50 woman-owned businesses. Co-founder of The Alliance for American Quilts, the International Quilt Association, and the Texas Quilt Association, she is the author or co-author of eight books, including Lone Stars: A Legacy of Texas Quilts, Volumes I and II, AMERICA: From the Heart, I Remember Mama, and Creative Quilting. She has created and curated many traveling exhibitions in the U.S. and abroad, including the influential Journal Quilt Project. She is on the national board of SAQA-the Studio Art Quilt Associates-has been named to the Quilters Hall of Fame and honored as one of 100 leaders in quilting in the world. She received her M.A. in Journalism from the University of Texas.
Nancy Puentes O'Bryant is executive vice-president and director of publications and public information of Quilts, Inc., which conducts trade and consumer expositions in the quilt and related industries. She is a founding director of the Texas Quilt Search and the Texas Sesquicentennial Quilt Association and is the co-curator and co-author of the museum exhibitions and two award-winning books that resulted from these surveys. With a long-standing interest in quilt care and conservation, she planned and coordinated the nation's first quilt conservation and restoration seminar and laboratory in 1984, and wrote the first book to address quilt care for the layman, First Aid for Family Quilts. She is a co-founder of the International Quilt Association and editorial director of its journal, "Quilts: A World of Beauty," a co-founder of The Alliance for American Quilts, and the author of numerous articles on quilts and quilting for consumer and industry publications. She holds a degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin.
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 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 area World Affairs Council. Zegart holds a B.A. in Education from the University of Michigan.