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Great Lakes Quilt Center facts for kids

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The Great Lakes Quilt Center is a special part of the Michigan State University Museum. It's a place where people study, teach, and show off amazing quilts!

The museum itself started way back in 1857, but its focus on quilts really grew when the Michigan Quilt Project began there in 1984. This project helped find and record the history of quiltmaking all over Michigan. It also made the museum want to collect more quilts, take better care of them, and share them with more people.

By 2008, the Michigan Quilt Project had gathered information on over 9,000 quilts from Michigan! The museum's own collection now has over 700 quilts. These include beautiful examples from Michigan and the Great Lakes region. There are also quilts from many African countries, special collections of Native American quilts, and Michigan African American quilts. The museum also holds important collections from famous quilt historians like Cuesta Benberry and Mary Schafer.

The MSU Museum and the Great Lakes Quilt Center have also helped create two big national projects. One is the Quilt Treasures Project. This project creates "web portraits" using video interviews and old documents. These portraits show the lives and work of important people who helped bring quilts back into fashion in the late 1900s. The other project is the Quilt Index. This is like a huge online library where you can find digital copies of quilts and quilt-related items from many different collections. The Quilt Index keeps these collections safe online and makes them easy to find for learning and research. The project first tested its ideas with the MSU Museum's collections. By 2008, it had over 18,000 quilts from nine different collections. Many more collections have been added since then, making it an even bigger resource!

What the Center Does

The Great Lakes Quilt Center has several important goals. They want to:

  • Record stories and histories about quilting and the people who make quilts.
  • Grow and keep a research collection of information about quilting in the Great Lakes area.
  • Create programs and shows to share quilt history with more people.
  • Help everyone understand how important it is to take care of old fabrics and support efforts to save them.
  • Find and celebrate quilters and quilting styles from different places, groups, and backgrounds.
  • Honor amazing quilters and quilt groups through awards like the Michigan Heritage Awards.
  • Help keep traditional quilting styles alive through programs like the Michigan Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program.
  • Share information about Great Lakes quilts, quilters, and quilting through publications.

Amazing Quilt Collections

The Great Lakes Quilt Center is home to many different collections of quilts and other fabrics. Some of these include:

Quilt Shows and Exhibits

The Great Lakes Quilt Center has organized many exciting exhibitions over the years. These shows help people see and learn about different types of quilts and their stories. Some past exhibitions have included:

  • Shows featuring quilts from the MSU Museum's own collections.
  • Exhibits about Hmong pictorial Embroidery and African-American quiltmaking traditions in Michigan.
  • Shows about Native American quilting traditions from different regions.
  • Exhibitions focusing on specific collections, like those from Merry and Albert Silber, or the Mary Schafer collection.
  • Shows that explore how quilts connect to important topics like Human Rights or historical events.
  • Exhibits that have traveled to different cities in Michigan, other states, and even to Japan!

The center also has several exhibitions that travel to different places, so more people can enjoy them. Some of these include:

  • "To Honor and Comfort: Native Quilting Traditions"
  • "Great Lakes Native Quilting"
  • "The Mary Schafer Collection: A Legacy of Quilt History"
  • "Quilting Sisters: African-American Quiltmaking in Michigan"

You can also explore many of their exhibitions online! These "virtual" exhibits let you see quilts and learn about them from anywhere. Some popular online exhibits are:

  • "To Honor and Comfort: Native Quilting Traditions" (virtual version)
  • "The Mary Schafer Collection: A Legacy of Quilt History" (virtual)
  • "Redwork: A Textile Tradition in America" (virtual)
  • "Quilts and Human Rights" (virtual)

Special Projects

The Great Lakes Quilt Center leads several important projects:

  • The Michigan Quilt Project: This project works to find and record important quilts made or owned in Michigan.
  • The Quilt Index: This is the large online collection of quilt information we talked about earlier.
  • H-Quilts: This is an online discussion group for people who study quilt history and other important quilt topics.
  • Great Lakes Folk Festival: This is a three-day festival held every August in East Lansing, Michigan. It celebrates traditional music, arts, and foods from the Great Lakes region.

The GLQC also works with the Alliance for American Quilts on projects like:

  • Michigan "Quilters Save Our Stories"
  • Michigan Boxes Under the Bed
  • Quilt Treasures

See also

  • The Quilt Index
  • Quilt Treasures
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Great Lakes Quilt Center Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.