2009/07/01 by Teri Klassen
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Architecture, Design, and Social History #Cultural Industries and Urban Development #Fashion and Cultural Textiles
paper · doi:10.2307/40390070
openalex publication_date 2009/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22
Abstract African American quiltmaking began to gain recognition as an expressive form distinct from European American quiltmaking in the countercultural climate of the 1970s. Representations of it since then have served to update the Eurocentric, patriotic image of quiltmaking in the United States with components ofmulticulturalism and cultural critique. These representations in turn caused tensions along the lines of class, race, gender, and scholarly discipline. This study shows the power of words and things when used together, as in museum exhibits, to affirm or challenge the existing social order.