SPENCERTOWN, NY.- Spencertown Academy Arts Center, in collaboration with Freedom Quilting Bee Legacy, announces “Gee’s Bend: The Next Generation,” an exhibition of more than 30 quilts, along with talks, workshops, and demonstrations by the celebrated makers, from July 11, 2025 through August 3, 2025. This is the first time this generation of Gee’s Bend quilters have traveled outside of their community in Alabama to present their works in such a major exhibition.

The exhibition is being held in the Spencertown Academy Galleries and the nearby Austerlitz Historical Society Church. There are six participating quilters: Loretta Pettway Bennett, Stella Mae Pettway, Emma Mooney Pettway, Polly Mooney Middleton, Sharon Ann Williams, and Andrea Pettway Williams. They are third and fourth generation Gee’s Bend women who learned the art and techniques from their mothers, grandmothers, and great grandmothers.

“We are so honored to bring this exceptional exhibition to the Hudson Valley,” says curator Lisa Bouchard Hoe. “The quilts are beautiful, and the women who make them are a joy to be around, exuding love and strength.”

Gee’s Bend, Alabama, is a small isolated community tucked into a bend of the Alabama River. Once a plantation, the slaves of Gee’s Bend were given the last name of the owner Pettway, and many of the quilters carry that name today. Originally, they made quilts from any available fabric, and used them to keep their families warm as their homes lacked electricity, running water, and heat. Somehow, despite the poverty and hard living conditions, an art form was born.

The quilts are characterized by bold improvisational designs that are highly expressive and very personal to the maker. Discovered by the art world and made globally famous in the early 2000s, Gee’s Bend quilts are today in the permanent collection of over 30 leading art museums around the world. The New York Times hailed Gee’s Bend quilts as “some of the most miraculous works of Modern Art America has produced.”

Plans for “Gee’s Bend: The Next Generation” have been in the works for the past year and a half. Bouchard Hoe, a quilt collector, was astounded by the 2002 exhibition of Gee’s Bend quilts at the Whitney Museum, then traveled to Gee’s Bend to meet the quilters. With the support of Spencertown Academy, she worked with the Freedom Quilting Bee Legacy to bring this exhibition to the Northeast.