The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is proud to present Textural Rhythms: Constructing the Jazz Tradition, Contemporary African American Quilts.  This unique exhibition, curated by Carolyn Mazloomi, Founder and Coordinator of The Women of Color Quilters Network, opens on June 15, 2010 and will run through August 14, 2010.

Textural Rhythms unites the two most well known and popular artistic forms in African American culture—jazz and quilts. The exhibition of 64 quilts includes work from some of America’s best known African American quilters such as Michael Cummings, Ed Johnetta Miller, Tina Brewer, and Jim Smoote.     

Just as the varied styles of jazz cause listeners to respond differently, the quilts of Textural Rhythms persuade us to salute the bonding of two worlds, jazz and quilts, in a distinguished combination of cultural tradition, sophistication, and panache.  Irregardless of technique – unpretentious folk, intricate appliqué, conventional piecing, or complex montage, these quilt artists have harnessed in cloth, the spirit of jazz through meticulous reflections of the souls of jazz folk and the music that sways us.           

“No viewer will hear jazz with quite the same ear after an encounter with Textural Rhythms,” said Freedom Center President and CEO Don Murphy in announcing the new exhibit.  “Our understanding of quilting and jazz artistry, our viewing and listening pleasure, together, are transformed through the phenomenal marriage between jazz and quilting represented in Textural Rhythms.”

The showing here at the Freedom Center is part of a national tour over a two and a half year period containing approximately sixty-four quilts from fifty five artists of the Women of Color Quilters Network. The exhibition was curated by Carolyn Mazloomi and was developed and managed by Smith Kramer Fine Art Services, an exhibition tour development company in Kansas City, Missouri.