NEW HOPE, PA.- The James A. Michener Art Museum in New Hope is proud to present Wild By Design: 200 Years Of Innovation And Artistry In American Quilts, on view from February 16 through June 3, 2007 in the Della Penna Gallery. The exhibition features 24 dynamic quilts from the collection of the International Quilt Study Center and explores originality, abstraction, and figurative design by quilt makers from the early 1800s through today.

The making of a quilt brings together beauty and practicality, as well as history, community and culture. The process of creating a quilt traditionally involves skill, time, and patience, and brings together a community of people who share in the construction while sharing each others’ stories.

A quilt grows out of many aspects of the makers’ life: scraps of fabric saved from worn garments can be reminders of good times and bad times. Some quilts record an event, portray a story or symbolize the nature of the human spirit. Quilts can serve as the autobiography of someone’s life.

“Many people think of quilts primarily as exercises in rigorously geometric repeat patterning,” said Janet Berlo, co-curator of the exhibition and Professor of Art History at the University of Rochester . “Yet a great free-wheeling tradition exists in quiltmaking in which improvisation, asymmetry, and experimentation are the norm…this creative and original artistic impulse can be documented back to the early years of quiltmaking in this country. For at least two hundred years, American women artists have made quilts in which off-beat color placement and manipulation of printed textile patterns have combined with bold experimentation in block formation and appliqué.”

When the first settlers came to this country they brought with them quilt making skills, but fabric was scarce, so fabric for clothing and for quilts had to be reused saving as much as possible from worn clothing. Thus the patchwork quilt was born. Scraps of fabric were cut into geometric patterns that fit together into larger squares of design. Many of these patterns have been passed through generations, created by American women and traded within communities as the country grew. Names for particular patterns sometimes changed as they moved from one part of the country to another, reflecting the environment within which it was named.

The online database of the International Quilt Study Center provides an easily searchable source of more than 1700 quilts from the IQSC collection. Visit the International Quilt Study Center website at http://www.quiltstudy.org/ and search by key words such as wild, crazy and abstract to enjoy images and information about quilts “wild by design.”

In conjunction with the exhibition the Museum will present the following program: “Wild, Whirlwind Tour of Quilts: Lecture and Gallery Talk” on February 20, 2007, from 1 to 4pm at the museum in New Hope . Eleanor Levie, quilting editor and historian will provide a tour through the quilt-making world of the last 200 years with slides, stories and a gallery walk through.

Deborah Schwartzman, director of ArtQuilts at the Sedgwick (AQATS) and painterly quilt artist will present current trends in the art quilt movement over the past 7 years. Schwartzman, will lead a discussion about the growth of AQATS, and present her impressions of this juried, highly select biennial exhibit.

Advance registration is required for this program through http://www.michenermuseum.org/events/event.php?id=830 or by calling 215-340-9800. The program is $7 for members and $15 for non-members, which includes admission to the Wild by Design exhibition. Attendees are invited to bring their own quilt work or vintage quilts from their collection.