Educational Media Reviews Online

Shelly Zegart, a known expert on antique and contemporary quilts, has collected, curated, lectured and written about quilts for over four decades. This deep and abiding passion for quilts is exemplified to valuable effect in Zegart’s series Why Quilts Matter. Originally produced for television, this robust series is a thoughtfully crafted and insightful examination of the American quilt. Covering the history, community and scholarship of the American quilt from early times through its current placement in the art world, Zegart seemingly covers every angle of American quilts and quilting over the course of this lengthy nine-part series.

Why Quilts Matter is broken out into 9 episodes: Antique and Contemporary Quilts, Quilts Bring History Alive, The Quilt Marketplace, What is Art, Gee’s Bend, How Quilts have been Viewed and Collected, Empowering Women One Quilt at a Time, Quilt Nation: 20,000,000 and Counting, Quilt Scholarship: Romance and Reality. In each episode, Zegart engages in an insightful conversation with an array of articulate artists, curators, collectors, dealers, critics and teaching faculty. Very rich in narrative, the series offers a good balance of this expert commentary with visuals of the quilts themselves. Zegart offers a complete image resource guide to all of the images, quilts and people in the episodes at the series’ website.

This series could just as easily serve as a primer on the subject as it could springboard detailed and layered discussions deconstructing and analyzing the aesthetics and politics of the American quilt. It certainly promotes quilt scholarship and underscores Zegart’s desire to “…engage a new audience in the centrality of the quilt to American culture.”

Episode 1: Quilts 101 – Antique and Contemporary Quilts—In this episode, Zegart begins by positing, “What is a Quilt” to a number of artists, faculty, museum & textile curators, antique dealers and other art & craft experts. Throughout these interviews, she introduces the viewer to a vast array of quilts. As the camera pans across each of these colorful creations, Zegart is careful to outline specific styles and technique; often offering placement in various genres as well as within the larger framework of the history. Many definitions are provided in this introduction.

Episode 2: Quilts Bring History Alive—This episode introduces the scholarship of the quilt. Zegart underscores the notion that quilts bring memories alive and serve as an essential part of American history – both personal and public. They are invaluable documents and artifacts of the past. Extremely narrative in nature, quilts are an irreplaceable source of information about the people that made them as well as a reflection of the culture, society and politics of the day. This episode ends with a pretty persuasive history lesson taught from quilts. Zegart effectively deconstructs the narratives conveyed in a number of quilts made in the 18th and 19th centuries; offering interesting analysis of elements of the Civil War up through the Depression.

Episode 3: The Quilt Marketplace—Separating antique from contemporary, Zegart offers a look into the quilt market place for each. Beginning with the movement in the 1960’s, the antique quilt marketplace really burgeoned up through the 1980’s. Dealers like Sandra Mitchell began to set the stage and prices for collectors. Zegart gives an interesting introduction to Crazy Quilts in this segment and explains that prices for antique quilts are based on rarity and historical importance.

Zegart continues the episode outlining the contemporary quilt marketplace and identifying the two major types of quilts populating this arena: the art or studio quilt (made as art) and the traditional quilt. Experts speak to interests based on geography - NYC, America’s west coast and metropolitan areas abroad demand more of a market for the art & studio quilt. She also brings to discussion, gallery exhibits versus quilt shows and outlines that prices in the contemporary marketplace are based on ideas and aesthetics.

Episode 4: What is Art—In this episode, Zegart focuses on the broad discussion of art versus craft and whether quilts are considered art. UNC-Chapel Hill History professor William R. Ferris outlines it this way “…this is the issue that lies at the heart of the quilt, this is a functional piece of craft and as it becomes viewed as a work of art it’s treated very differently and that is a central issue in the vernacular work. Is it a work of art?” Zegart broaches this subject to interesting effect with a host of artists, curators, critics, dealers and faculty.

Each weigh-in here – and help outline the shift from craft and function through; decorative craft, craftsmanship, art, applied art, to fine art… Obviously, this is a rather large question not to be completely answered here, but Zegart does a fine job of broaching it in an interesting and insightful way.

Shifting focus a bit, Zegart posits if quilting has reached a ceiling of sorts in the art world. Dr. Bernard Herman offers “…quilts are this incredible point of aesthetic resistance in American society and in American critical imagination when it comes to art.” Zegart argues that it is this resistance that has held quilt makers in place up until now. She illustrates how the movement has continued to progress both inside and beyond the gallery and museum.

Episode 5: Gee’s Bend: “The Most Famous Quilts in America?”—Arguably some of the most famous quilts in America hail from Gee’s Bend, Alabama. This is an essential discussion to any introduction to the American Quilt and Zegart focuses an episode in her series to the Gee’s Bend story. Here, Zegart weaves important, interesting interviews with Gee’s Bend artists Nettie Young, Creola B. Pettway, Arlonzia Pettway, Georgiana Pettway, Mary Lee Bendolph, and Essie Bendolph Pettway alongside essential commentary from James Grubola, William Ferris, Maxwell L. Anderson, Bernard Herman and Matt Arnett (Bill Arnett’s son). Albeit a rather quick overview, this insightful episode touches on central elements of this significant story. Further viewing recommended on the Gee’s Bend artists:

• The Quiltmaker’s of Gee’s Bend (2004)
• The Quilts of Gee’s Bend (2006)

Episode 6: How Quilts Have been Viewed and Collected—Here Zegart provides a brief history of the role of quilts in American society and, as the title states, how people viewed, collected, and accepted them. By the 1920s museums began noticing quilts for their Americana appeal. In the 1960s museums collected quilts for stronger artistic merit with many designs having a bold, graphic quality. In 2002 the quilts from Gees Bend Alabama took both the art and quilt worlds by storm. This was a significant event because quilts are not always accepted by the art establishment. They have some intrinsic strikes against them. They are:

• associated with domesticity i.e. “women’s work;”
• associated with crafts rather than art;
• rooted in the world of the everyday – marginalized by the art world;
• Gender biased.

Quilt exhibitions are growing and becoming accepted by establishments like The Whitney Museum, American Folk Art Museum and private collectors.

Episode 7: Empowering Women One Quilt at a Time—Taking a look at the connection between quilts and the role of women in society, Zegart points out how much quiet power these objects truly have. Women used quilts to speak their minds when it wasn’t accepted for them to do so publicly. They accomplished this by using certain fabrics and colors, through the naming of patterns for political causes (Burgoyne Surrounded, Underground Railroad) and by combining these modes of expression with intrinsic creativity to express political and economic views. The largest community art project and form of political expression is the AIDS quilt, which was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. One section of this episode is devoted to the iconic quilt image of Sunbonnet Sue—the little girl, usually in profile, in a dress and oversized sunbonnet. Sue enjoyed unparalleled popularity when she appeared in the early 1900s and continuing on through the 1970s when the women’s liberation movement used it to express their disdain for the image as a sign of repression. Several women created a landmark quilt with each square depicting a different way to kill off Sunbonnet Sue. Dr. Bernard Herman, UNC-Chapel Hill Professor of American Studies describes it as “…using a soft medium to deliver a hard message.” Zegart exposes some thought provoking material in this episode, making it one of the strongest in the series. Competitive quilt making is introduced along with the foremothers of quilting: Marie Webster, Eleanor Beard, Mary McElroy and the evolution from quilting bees to guilds and clubs and more formal organizations.

Episode 8: Quilt Nation 20,000,000 and Counting—This episode outlines the explosive growth of quilting worldwide in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Today quilting is a 3.6 billion dollar industry, spurred on by two of the largest quilt shows in the U.S. – Houston and Paducah, Kentucky. Zegart explains the Kentucky Quilt Project, referring to it as the greatest mass movement nobody ever heard of. She exclaims, “Many believe the quilt world is a cozy place celebrating a domestic handicraft. They ought to get out more!” We’re introduced to modern quilters and techniques and the variety of groups within quilting – art quilters, hand quilters, machine quilters and free motion quilters to name a few.

Episode 9: Quilt Scholarship: Romance and Reality—Explaining the difference between quilt scholars and academics, Zegart looks at some of the intellectual bias found in the academic world in particular, when in reality, both groups need each other to gather complete information on quilting. Some of the myths surrounding quilting are exposed – that quilts were signs and signals for those using the Underground Railroad…no proof; that the Crazy Quilt pattern was the earliest known pattern…not true. More details on the Kentucky Quilt Project are highlighted noting its significance as a landmark project to document as many quilts as possible in the state of Kentucky. Electronic quilt research is blossoming in the online world as well with projects like The Quilt Index, a database with over 50,000 entries on quilts, quilt makers and quilt ephemera; various web sites, e-zines and blogs; and the existence of courses and degree programs in quilts at colleges and universities across the United States.

Shelly Zegart, the executive producer and host brings a thorough introduction of the rich world of quilting to the forefront, and her infectious enthusiasm encourages further exploration and research. This fine series has aired on selected PBS stations and is recommended for academic and public library collections. Each episode is further divided into sections, making it optimal for classroom selection and viewing. The Special Features section of the DVD includes some interesting stories from the producers and other quilters including how and why the films were made as well as Bonus Clips.