The International Quilt Study Center and Museum will display quilts from the private collection of American filmmaker Ken Burns Jan. 19 through May 13.
“Uncovered: The Ken Burns Collection” will feature 28 never-before-displayed quilts from the Oscar-nominated and Emmy Award-winning documentarian.
“It was an honor to work with Mr. Burns on curating an exhibition of his personal quilt collection to provide a truly unique insight into this extraordinary storyteller,” said Leslie C. Levy, executive director of the quilt museum. “Just as Mr. Burns’ films give us an insight into the filmmaker, he appreciates how quilts not only tell their own story, but what they also tell us about the quilt maker.”
Burns’ quilt collecting is an extension of his passion for storytelling. The collection exemplifies the shared understanding of the simple, yet powerful ways in which quilts have been used to reflect personal, social and national milestones.
For Burns, each quilt represents a moment in time and American history. He is less concerned with the provenance and genealogy of his quilts than with the visual impact they have on the viewer, and their implicit connections to stories.
“I’ve spent my entire professional life asking this essentially simple question: Who are we? Who are those strange and complicated people who like to call themselves Americans?” Burns said. “As an avocation, as a hobby, I have pursued collecting what I think is the cleanest, simplest and most authentic expression of who we are as a people.”
Displayed alongside his anecdotal thoughts about quilts, collecting, and art and authenticity, the quilts will spark dialogue and remind people, he hopes, of their shared humanity.
Special programs will be held in support of the exhibition throughout its run. The 1st Nebraska Volunteers Brass Band will perform at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 2. The musical ensemble provides living history, education and musical entertainment by portraying the band of the original 1st Nebraska Volunteer Infantry Regiment, wearing Union infantry uniforms and playing authentic arrangements from Civil War band books. Admission to the concert and museum will be free from 4 to 7 p.m. as part of First Friday.
The museum will also hold three screenings of Burns films in February, March and April. For more information, click here.
A feature on the collection and exhibition is in production by NET and will air in 2018.
“As a collector, I’m looking for something that reflects my country back at me,” Burns said. “Quilts rearrange my molecules when I look at them. There’s an enormous satisfaction in having them close by. I’m not a materialist. There are too many things in the world, and we know that the best things in life aren’t things. Yet there are a few things that remind me of the bigger picture. We live in a rational world. One and one always equals two. That’s OK, but we actually want — in our faith, in our families, in our friendships, in our love, in our art — for one and one to equal three. And quilts do that for me.”
