TACOMA, WA.-Tacoma Art Museum is the only West-Coast venue for Gee’s Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt, which features the work of African-American quilters from Gee’s Bend , Alabama . The exhibition features fifty-one quilts highlighting some of the now-famous quilters and new artists alike. It introduces new motifs as well as never-before-seen quilts from the early twentieth century. The exhibition is on view September 22 through December 9, 2007.

Renowned for their visual appeal and compelling history, the Gee’s Bend quilts have achieved widespread acclaim. The popularity of the 2002 traveling exhibition The Quilts of Gee’s Bend created interest in the quilts and led to the organization of The Architecture of the Quilt, which is the second traveling exhibition of Gee’s Bend quilts organized by the Museum of Fine Arts , Houston .

Approximately 750 residents live in Gee’s Bend . Located on a peninsula formed by a hairpin bend in the Alabama River , the community’s geographic isolation contributed to its unique history and the preservation of cultural traditions. The quilts carry the legacy of former slave Dinah Miller, whose descendants include several of the quilters in this exhibition. The struggles of their sharecropper ancestors, the poverty of the Great Depression and improvements made possible by the New Deal, as well as the turbulent decades of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s and 1970s figure prominently in the lives and traditions of these quiltmakers.

The quilting tradition in Gee’s Bend has been passed down through generations. Traditionally, the quilts were strictly utilitarian and were constructed from whatever materials were available, primarily worn-out clothing. The resulting quilts have a bold, geometric look distinctive to Gee’s Bend , yet innovation and variation are valued, and each quilter also has her own style.

“Gee’s Bend quilts represent the essence of the local community,” said Rock Hushka, Director of Curatorial Administration and Curator of Contemporary and Northwest Art. “From this single place, a distinct voice and intriguing artform emerged and attracted the attention of the nation. One unique aspect of the quilts’ aesthetic is that they bear remarkable parallels to jazz music: asymmetry, high contrast, and improvisational patterns. Each quilter expresses her own individual style and approach.”

Gee’s Bend became known for its quilts during the Civil Rights Movement in the mid-1960s when the Freedom Quilting Bee was organized. They were not widely known outside the region until William Arnett, a collector and the founder of Tinwood Alliance, a non-profit foundation supporting American vernacular art, began to collect them in the late 1990s. Tinwood Alliance partnered with the Museum of Fine Arts , Houston to organize the first exhibition. The two formed a second partnership for The Architecture of the Quilt. All of the quilts in the exhibition are from the Tinwood Alliance collection.

The show travels to seven museums, stopping at The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Denver Museum of Art, Indianapolis Museum of Art, and Philadelphia Museum of Art, in addition to Tacoma Art Museum .

Immediately following The Architecture of the Quilt, Tacoma Art Museum brings local voices to the galleries with Threads that Bind: Works by Pacific Northwest African American Quilters, on view December 18, 2007, through February 17, 2008. The Association of Pacific Northwest African American Quilters is dedicated to preserving and sharing the evolution of African-American quilting. Members meet regularly for quilting bees, organize classes and workshops, and show their work around the region.