Quilts, rugs, blankets and other fiber arts are having what could be called “a vertical moment.” Long considered the province of horizontal surfaces—beds, floors and sofas or the laps, looms and work tables of their makers—the fine art form in recent years has claimed ownership and overdue visibility on the walls of art museums and galleries worldwide. Locally, the de Young, and in the East Bay, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, and galleries such as Oakland’s Mercury 20 and Walnut Creek’s Bedford Gallery, have been torchbearers. In 2024, they continue to present innovative exhibits displaying the wide range and richness of the dynamic, tactile medium. The de Young’s 2006 exhibition, “The Quilts of Gee’s Bend,” arguably signaled a movement. Highlighting the improvisational artwork made by African American quilters in Gee’s Bend, Alabama, the stunning display that opened in Houston in 2002 and toured to 11 museums in the country spawned considerable public attention and critical praise. Beyond the work’s artistic merits, the quilts told stories and represented a Black community, making visible African Americans’ cultural and historical significance in the United States’ history. At BAMPFA, similar legacy work appeared with a groundbreaking bequest in 2019 from Oakland-based collector Eli Leon of more than 3,000 artworks by African American quiltmakers. The collection created an unprecedented opportunity for truth-telling and paying tribute to the African diaspora and Black quiltmakers, especially fiber artists who migrated to the West and established new roots in California. Included in the bequeathal were the quilts of Richmond-based Rosie Lee Tompkins. In 2020, “Rosie Lee Tompkins: A Retrospective,” installed during Covid restrictions and reopened a year later, launched major projects, initiatives, activities, and plans for preservation and future exhibitions at BAMPFA. A direct outgrowth of that work will open in June 2025 with “Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California.” The exhibition showcases quilts created by California makers between 1940 and 1970, when many Black Americans living in the South migrated West; predominantly to join the World War II military workforce. They came also to build lives based on democratic ideals such as equality, freedom, citizenship, resiliency, resourcefulness, and the power of family and community. These themes are deeply woven into the quilts of that time period. “The size of the collection is truly massive and a bit daunting,” says Elaine Y. Yau, BAMPFA’s associate curator and academic liaison, who inventoried and cataloged the bequeathal’s enormous volume alongside the team charged with restoring and preserving the quilts. Initially unsure of the show’s theme, Yau worked to understand each quilt’s historical background, materials and construction, as well as the ancestral information of the donor. Ironically, like patchwork pieces sewn together that become a whole, a general picture emerged. “I got a sense that so many of the quiltmakers migrated to California from Southern states: Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi and Oklahoma,” Yau says. Along with the exhibit’s more than 100 quilts and textile objects from roughly 80 artists, BAMPFA and the newly founded African American Quilt Documentation Study Group are developing public programs such as panels, performances, film screenings and work study days. An exhibition catalog co-published with DAP and Del Monico includes essays from leading historians, experts, preservationists, Executive Director Julie Rodrigues Widholm, Yau, Eli Leon and others. “For this show, I wanted to open up the capacity of quiltmaking during migration,” Yau says. “How are quilts able to carry memories or affirm kinship when there is the distance of time and space? The catalog weaves in and out of linear trajectory; starting with Southern roots, moving to intergenerational dynamics, the role of quilt keepers and more. Eli Leon relied greatly on family members who originally owned the quilts he later donated to BAMPFA.” Yau says the idea that quiltmaking is having a moment makes complete sense to her. “So much of our lives are mediated digitally,” she says. “There’s acceleration of experience and communication. So there’s something slow-moving about quilts that feels like an antidote. We’re seeking ways to mend or repair our social fabric.” Framed with the writing of Black feminist writers like bell hooks, Alice Walker and others whose work explores collective care and love-giving, Yau says quiltmaking’s mending, repair and improvisational aspects run parallel. By honoring quiltmakers and meticulously stewarding quilts and the stories behind them, Yau says people are reminded of social practices that help them recover elusive things such as ancestry, family stories, close relationships, and individual and collective expressions of love and care. “Quilts are models of interconnectivity we can pass along to our kids,” she concludes. Critical to making commitment to Black quiltmakers more than a gesture, Yau says museums, collectors and galleries must continue to address historical inequities. Quilt guilds like the African American Quilt Guild of Oakland and other Bay Area arts, culture, history and academic organizations and institutions working in tandem will expand the visibility of work created by people of color, women and other underrepresented artistic communities. (LEFT) DUMPED DISPOSABLES Alice Beasley’s quilt, ‘In My Wake,’ involves the Pacific Garbage Patch, told through a personal story involving plastic products. Pictured: Alice Beasley (2018; Oakland), ‘In My Wake.’ (RIGHT) STITCHED HERSTORY ‘Blood Line’ tells the story of Alice Beasley’s ancestry, from Africa through slavery to modern times. Pictured: Alice Beasley (2015; Oakland), ‘Blood Line’ — shown here in three disconnected parts. (Photos courtesy of Alice Beasley) Oakland-based former attorney and current fabric artist Alice Beasley is on the Board of Directors for the Textile Arts Council of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and Berkeley’s Kala Art Institute, in addition to having other professional affiliations. In a separate interview, she says, “Two things mean art quilting is having a moment. A lot of people got into it during the pandemic, but more importantly, fiber art is making its way onto the walls of museums. Bisa Butler’s enormous (2021) solo show at the Art Institute of Chicago broke the ceiling and made museums sit up and take notice. There have always been people who have to lead the way. This medium is not new, but it’s like it’s new to them.” The Textile Arts Council brought the acclaimed Butler to the Bay Area in the past, and in February 2025 the de Young will host a return visit. Beasley says those events and efforts ensure continued exhibitions at major art museums and galleries nationwide. She mentions that efforts made by people such as historian, author and artist Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi highly impacted the prominence of Black women fabric artists. Increased exposure also sparks inspiration and fuels Beasley’s own work. A quilt she’s close to completing is tentatively titled, Richmond Reimagined. Commissioned by the Richmond Housing Authority, it includes iconic buildings and spaces: “The Plunge” natatorium, Rosie the Riveter Park and others. “I put anonymous people, and in the forefront, Rosie the Riveter and Betty Reid Soskin,” Beasley says. Another quilt, In My Wake, involves the Pacific Garbage Patch, told through a personal story involving plastic products. “It’s disposable plastics I found in my house I realized will end up in a landfill. This was to say this is not just other people’s problem, it’s my problem too. I selected fabric to [depict] those items and show them dumping into the ocean in the wake of a container ship.”  Even more personal is All My Roads Lead Back to You, which has in the background images of a family Bible, marriage and death records, and photos. Blood Line tells the story of Beasley’s ancestry, from Africa through slavery to modern times. QUILTING GROUP Fourteen women in ‘The Process’ create quilts with the ‘owner’ making the first block, then passing it to each member to add a section or component. Pictured (LEFT): Susie Alegria (2023; Bay Area), ‘Doors of Friendship’; (RIGHT) Melanie Walas (2023; Bay Area), ‘Tiki Fever.’ Quiltmakers active in the East Bay aren’t limited to full-time solo artists like Beasley and those represented in BAMFA’s new collection. Bay Area-born Oakland resident Susie Alegria is a member of a collective group formed during the pandemic. Fourteen women in “The Process” work round robin, creating quilts with the “owner” making the first block, then passing it to each member to add a section or component. The artist starting the quilt is not allowed to see the quilt until it is completed. Alegria, who with the collective has had quilts shown at the de Young and Mercury 20, writes in an email, “The challenge was getting all of us together. We all had worked collaboratively in our (other) work so the actual process went fairly smoothly.” She refers to her work in stop-motion film and definitions of quilting that emphasize the medium’s collaborative nature. These cornerstones of quiltmaking—personal storytelling, evolving techniques and opportunities for self-expression—underscore Beasley’s belief that Black fabric artists themselves have responsibility for ensuring the surging interest is not merely a brief trending fad. “Quilting is a genuine fine-art form,” Beasley says. “Black artists, advocates for artists of color and guilds need to take themselves seriously, busting down doors and getting attention. There’s competition for wall space. Marketing is a whole career in itself, but it must be done now and in the future.”