Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California
Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California examines the movement and development of African American quilting during the Second Great Migration, when roughly five million Black Americans relocated from the rural South to cities in the North and West between 1940 and 1970. The exhibition focuses especially on California, where migrants brought quilts as sources of warmth, protection, family memory, and cultural continuity.
Featuring more than 80 artworks, the exhibition explores quilting as both an artistic practice and a vital part of Black life. The quilts demonstrate techniques including the reuse of work clothing, improvisational piecing, pattern-based quilting, and tying. Works connected to migrants from Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas show how quilts became treasured family heirlooms. The exhibition also considers the creative lives of quiltmakers who worked as teachers, nurses, seamstresses, truck drivers, grocery-store managers, shipyard workers, and other laborers, as well as multigenerational family traditions and the work of contemporary artists who continue African American quilting practices.
When: September 18, 2026, through January 17, 2027.
Venue: National Museum of Women in the Arts.
Tickets: Price information is not available.
Artworks: More than 80 quilts and related artworks are presented, including pieces featuring kaleidoscopic colors, patterns, and forms.
Featured artists and works: The exhibition includes Sherry Ann Byrd and Irene Bankhead’s *Cultural Merger at Crossroads*, made in California in 1990, and Alice Neal’s 1956 *Mary Bright Commemorative Quilt*, which incorporates multiple traditional block patterns and found materials.
Organization: The exhibition is organized by the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.
Curators: Elaine Y. Yau, Associate Curator and Academic Liaison, curates the exhibition with Matthew Villar Miranda, former Curatorial Associate.
Program: Routed West is part of *Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026*, a nationwide initiative of Craft in America.
Run time: The exhibition remains on view throughout its listed dates; no individual visit duration is specified.
Accessibility and age guidance: The page does not provide age restrictions or specific accessibility information.