The Spelman College Museum of Fine Art Presents "Threaded," a new Exhibition Featuring
Textile Works by Contemporary Black Women Artists
On display at the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Feb. 2 - May 24, 2024
Location: Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta,Georgia
Artwork captions at end.
Threaded, an exhibition organized by and presented at the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, presents a selection of contemporary artworks created by Black women working in textiles. This spring 2024 exhibition features works made with cotton, polyester, wool, sateen, corduroy, silk, chiffon, kente cloth, pima cloth, lace, velvet, and hand-dyed fabrics. In addition to textiles, visitors will encounter works adorned with cowrie shells, beads, broaches, and framed with wall paper. Quilts sometimes emerge from the desire to keep loved ones warm, and sometimes these objects gather, hold and bear witness to our stories. The works in Threaded are united by textile-based materials and a starting place of love and creativity.
The foundation of this Spelman Museum exhibition is seven newly-conserved quilts from the Gee’s Bend, Alabama quilting community in the Spelman Museum permanent collection. These works are joined by another Gee’s Bend quilt from the Clark Atlanta University Art Museum collection, in addition to ten prints. Threaded places quilts by Gee’s Bend artists in conversation with works by contemporary Black women artists that integrate materials and techniques that extend beyond the traditional category of “quilt.” The textile-based objects in the exhibition are a testament to the spirits of women who have passed down their knowledge, skills, and fabrics through generations.
Artists featured in Threaded at the Spelman Museum are Louisiana Bendolph, Mary Lee
Bendolph, Polly Bennett, Willie Ann Benning, Bisa Butler, Helen McBride Richter, Flora Moore,
Ruth Pettway Mosely, Ebony G. Patterson, Loretta Pettway, Bettie Bendolph Seltzer, Phyllis
Stephens, Sonie Joi Thompson-Ruffin, Qualeasha Wood and Billie Zangewa. Threaded opens on Friday, February 2, 2024. The museum is open and free to the public Wednesday through Saturday, 12 - 5pm. The exhibition will be on view at the Spelman Museum for the spring 2024 semester, February 2 - May 24, 2024. Threaded is curated by Liz Andrews, Ph.D and Karen Comer Lowe, with Brandy Pettijohn, Ph.D.
Image Captions
Helen McBride Richter, …aint studdin’ you…, 2022, Cotton cloth, cotton batting, cotton threads, hand-dyed, thickened dye painted, improvisationally cut and machine-placed by artist. Machine-quilting assistance by Maxine Moore, Collection of Dr. and Mrs. Raymond Cox
Qualeasha Wood, Ascension, 2022, Jacquard cotton weave and glass seed beads, Collection of Kent and Tamara Kelley
Billie Zangewa, The Dreamer, 2016, Silk tapestry, Spelman College Museum of Fine Art purchase with support from the Friends of the Museum in celebration of the Museum's 20th Anniversary
The Spelman College Museum of Fine Art is the only museum in the nation dedicated to art by and about women of the African diaspora. The museum is located on the campus of Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia on the first floor of the Camille Olivia Hanks Cosby, Ed.D., Academic Center. Initial plans for the Museum were spearheaded by arts faculty who believed that visual art is an essential component of a liberal arts education and that it plays a significant role in encouraging intellectual growth and it has served as a vital resource for the Spelman community and the Atlanta University Center since it opened in 1996. The Spelman Museum is an internationally respected nexus for excellent exhibitions and programs, and has a renewed commitment to growing and exhibiting the permanent collection of art.
Founded in 1881, Spelman College is a leading liberal arts college widely recognized as the global leader in the education of women of African descent. Located in Atlanta, the College’s picturesque campus is home to 2,300 students. Spelman is the country's leading producer of Black women who complete Ph.D.s in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The College’s status is confirmed by the U.S. News & World Report, which ranked Spelman No. 39 among all liberal arts colleges, No. 19 for undergraduate teaching, No. 2 for social mobility among liberal arts colleges, and No. 1 for the 17th year among historically Black colleges and universities. Recent initiatives include a designation by the Department of Defense as a Center of Excellence for Minority Women in STEM, a Gender and Sexuality Studies Institute, the first endowed queer studies chair at an HBCU and a program to increase the number of Black women Ph.D.s in economics. New majors and minors have been added, including documentary filmmaking and photography, data science, refugee studies and gaming. Collaborations have been also established with MIT’s Media Lab, the Broad Institute and the Army Research Lab for artificial intelligence and machine learning, among others. Outstanding alumnae include Children’s Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman, former Walgreens Boots Alliance CEO Rosalind Brewer, political leader Stacey Abrams, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa D. Cook, former Acting Surgeon General and Spelman’s first alumna president Audrey Forbes Manley, Harvard University professor and former Dean Evelynn Hammonds, actress and producer Latanya Richardson Jackson, global bioinformatics geneticist Janina Jeff and authors Pearl Cleage and Tayari Jones.