San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles Appoints New Director

Kris Jensen, new Director of the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles, begins his new role on September 26, 2023.

For Immediate Release

Contact: Chris Salinas
Chris@sjquiltmuseum.org

September 5, 2023 (SAN JOSE, CA) - The San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles is delighted to announce the appointment of San Jose native and veteran nonprofit leader Kris Jensen (he/him/his), as Director. Jensen will step into his new role on September 26, 2023. The Museum was assisted in its national search by ACG, an international executive search firm.

“The Board is thrilled that we will be working with Kris,” commented Melissa Leventon, Board Chair.   “With his leadership, we are confident that the museum will be able to deepen and strengthen its bonds with our community while maintaining the high-quality exhibitions and programs it is known for internationally.”

Kris Jensen stated, “I have a passion for the arts and teaching people about the arts and bringing people into learning things they may not have known. The Museum, like so many other arts institutions, was closed for 15 months. I feel ready to take on the challenge of rebuilding audiences and reconnecting with supporters post-pandemic. I’m looking forward to getting the word out about the organization and getting people excited about quilts and textiles.”

Over his 30+-year nonprofit career, Jensen has worked in a variety of leadership roles. Most recently, he was Principal at Regenerative Communities Consulting, a visionary consultancy specializing in regenerative design with a focus on environmental justice, urban agriculture, and food systems change. To date,  he is responsible for raising more than $35M for various community-based organizations in the Bay Area, including San Bruno Mountain Watch, Collective Roots, Avenidas, Alameda County Community Food Bank, Swords to Plowshares, and Community Services Agency. 

Jensen grew up immersed in a family of makers. “My grandfather was a master woodworker, my grandmother a master weaver, my uncle a talented metal worker, and my father a respected folk artist,” he reflected. His  grandmother instilled in him a love and understanding for textiles. A deeply passionate advocate for social justice, equity, and the arts, one of Jensen’s immediate priorities at the Museum will be to ensure that exhibition and community programming is approachable and reflective of San Jose’s cultural diversity. 

About San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles: The San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles’ mission is to preserve, celebrate, and promote knowledge about quilts and textiles, their creation, beauty, and their relationship to human culture and expression. During its 45+-year history, the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles has touched the lives of more than 100,000 visitors, demonstrated fabric’s innate power to connect people of varied backgrounds, provided opportunities for cultural art engagement, and built civic connections. www.sjquiltmuseum.org and @sjmqt on Instagram.

San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles readies to premiere Excellence in Fibers VIII

For Immediate Release 

Contact: Chris Salinas,
chris@sjquiltmuseum.org

August 14, 2023 (SAN JOSE, CA)— Excellence in Fibers VIII, an annual juried exhibition featuring the best in contemporary textile craftsmanship, opens on September 15, 2023 at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles. Gallery hours on Opening Day are 11 am to 5 pm, with a free public reception from 5:30 pm - 7pm.

The new exhibition, which follows the Museum’s successful Queer Threads run, features works by 16 leading local, national, and international contemporary fiber artists. Each of the artists selected expands the boundaries of fiber art as a medium, deploying it to address some of today's most urgent social issues. Broader themes of feminism, war, diaspora, immigrant identity, mental health, death, disability, and climate are present throughout. The exhibition is guest curated by Mr. Demetri Broxton, an independent curator and practicing artist, who also serves as Senior Director of Education at Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco. 

“Demetri has assembled such an incredible array of textile techniques. There’s sewing, weaving, crocheting, quilting, embroidery, basket weaving, knotting, papermaking, felting, beading, dressmaking, and upholstery - indeed, there’s something for everyone,” said Museum Board Chair, Melissa Leventon. The exhibition is sure to inspire people of all ages and backgrounds who are interested in fiber arts, especially school-aged children and seniors, those with sensory or other differently-abled people because of the bright colors, the textures, and the subject matter.

Excellence in Fibers VIII is on view through January 7, 2024. The public is encouraged to check the Museum website for upcoming events including artist-led workshops and community programming. Memberships to the Museum are available at various levels. Donations to the Museum can be made at www.sjquitmuseum.org/donate. 

About San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles: The San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles’ mission is to preserve, celebrate, and promote knowledge about quilts and textiles, their creation, beauty, and their relationship to human culture and expression. During its nearly 46-year history, the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles has touched the lives of more than 100,00 visitors, demonstrated fabrics’ innate power to connect people of varied backgrounds, provided opportunities for cultural art engagement, and built civic connections. www.sjquiltmuseum.org and @sjmqt on Instagram. 

PRESS RELEASE - QUEER THREADS

San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles welcomes groundbreaking
Queer Threads exhibition, on view May 12-August 20, 2023

Click for Press Packet

For IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Chris Salinas                                                    chris@sjquiltmuseum.org

April 17, 2023 (SAN JOSE, CA)— The San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles opens its highly anticipated Queer Threads exhibition to the public on Friday, May 12, 2023; gallery hours are from 11am-5pm, with a free public reception from 5:30-7pm.

The traveling exhibition is among the first to spotlight how contemporary artists are remixing fiber and textile traditions to explore LGBTQIA+ identities and experiences. For its latest iteration at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, guest curator John Chaich has assembled an intergenerational, intersectional range of works from 37 emerging and established artists who are working in or rooted in the American West, Northwest, and Southwest, as well as work from the museum’s collection.

Exhibited artists include: AIDS Memorial Quilt, Indira Allegra, April Bey, Tammie Brown, Diedrick Brackens, Chiachio & Giannone, Craig Calderwood, Amanda Curreri, Greg Climer, Lola Corona, Ben Cuevas, Rakeem Cunningham, T.J. Dedeaux-Norris, Jovencio de la Paz, Erika Diamond, Ricki Dwyer, Andrés Payán Estrada, James Gobel, Harmony Hammond, Angela Hennessy, Alexander Hernández, Kang Seung Lee, Aubrey Longley-Cook, dani lopez, Richard Johnathan Nelson, Jasmine Nyende, Ramekon O’Arwisters, Joel Otterson, Maria E. Piñeres, Robb Putnam, RoCoCo, Erik Scollon, Sunny Smith, Molly Vaughan, Nathan Vincent, Angie Wilson, and Mikki Yamashiro.

On View Fri-Sun, 11 am to 5 pm, starting May 12, 2023 - August 20, 2023.

Radical Regeneration: SJMQT's 3rd Artist Members Biennial Exhibition

Linda Tapscott
Coalesce, 2021

Radical Regeneration, the 3rd Artist Members Biennial, is now open through October 16, 2022.   The exhibition feature 15 artworks selected by juror and local Bay Area artist, Adia Millett.  Her juror statement is as follows: 

While looking at the work submitted around the ideas of renewal, repair and revitalization in our present state, I noticed that so many of the objects conveyed a sense of the collective. Shapes, colors, textures, and materials, pieced together, suggest movement  and change. The small circles, X’s, and lines seem to be a part of a revolution or migration. The specificity of these parts within each piece asks the viewer to connect just enough to make subtle meanings, but when the parts come together, the artworks become worlds. In these worlds you can find traces of tracking time and expanding communities. 

What makes these pieces radical is not some bold statement about our culture or some political movement we are running to or from. These works of art put aside one’s overt agenda to remind us of one simple, but crucial element of growth and positive change… that is the value of connection.

Maggy Rozycki Hiltner
7 Red Xs, 2019

Metro: A Stitch in Time

SHORE THING Etsuko Takahashi’s Waves #4 is one of many stunning pieces currently on display at Museum of Quilt & Textile. Photo Credit: Photo provided by San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles

Last month, the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles celebrated its 45th anniversary. New Directions, the new exhibit created to mark the occasion, utilizes pieces from the museum’s archives as well as newly created works of art, and finally opened last week after an Omicron-related delay.

From a brazenly colorful floral-motif quilt created by an unknown artist in the late 19th century (and purchased in memoriam of museum founder Sylvia Moore), to painted cloth masks used during the pandemic, the exhibit showcases the museum collection’s stunning range while charting the evolution of textile art in America and the Bay Area.

“It was a collection of women who decided that quilts and textiles had a place in the art historical world, and that they were an art form that needed to be collected, preserved and cared for, for future generations to also have the same sort of care towards this art form,” says Shannon Knepper, the museum’s marketing director.

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Feral Fabric: Work About Work Equals Work by Amy DiPlacido

We're excited to share an article by Amy DiPlacido, SJMQT's Curator of Exhibitions on recently exhibited artist Ryan Carrington. Her article, 'Work About Work Equals Work' can be found on Feral Fabric's newly published journal on Labor, Volume 05.

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Star Spangled Banner. 2019. Painter's Pants, Suits, Collared Shirts. 70"x66"

The American workforce arguably experienced the most rapid change of the entire 21st century within the last year, due to the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Employees left their stations on March 16, 2020, many of them not returning for the greater part of the year. Some workers have not returned at all after 20 months and counting. Americans experienced mass layoffs, furloughs, labor injustices, and record unemployment with no current signs of a full recovery. America has since grappled with inequities surrounding its workforce: the luxury of safely working from the comforts of home, contrasting with front line workers who risk their personal health and safety. Workers who were fortunate enough to keep their jobs are advocating for work from home as a new normal, prompting thought and discussion of what work looks like in 2021, and how the future of employment will evolve in the coming years.

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Metroactive: ‘More Impact’ at San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles

IMPACTFUL: Climate Change affects all of us, including weavers.

As the changing global environment has led to deeper discussions regarding climate change, artists are increasingly bringing those reflections to their work. Beginning this Wednesday, the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles’ new exhibit features striking tapestry works that clearly showcase the detrimental effects of climate change across the planet. Curated by renowned local artists Deborah Corsini and Alex Friedman, the work stitches together weavers from across the West Coast—all members of Tapestry Weavers West—and features more than 25 artists speaking to one of the most important issues facing us today.

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Artemorbida: MORE IMPACT: Climate Change

Barbara Heller "For Michael" Boxed In Commercial and handspun wool (some hand dyed), perle cotton, cotton, linen, mixed fibers, on linen warp, Tapestry

POSTED BY: REDAZIONE

New Exhibit Opening September 22, 2021 to January 2, 2022
San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles

Climate change is a prominent topic in current events as we see and experience changes all around us throughout the seasons. Weather extremes, the consequent loss of habitat, and stress on species, including humans are major concerns that tapestry artists are expressing in their woven art. Members of Tapestry Weavers West present a juried exhibit of contemporary tapestry focusing on this important theme.

The exhibit features tapestries reflecting the artists’ concern about our changing global environment and the detrimental consequences of climate change. They are woven in a variety of tapestry techniques and styles. But whether traditional or experimental, abstract or representational, they reflect the anxiety of this topic. Of the 48 tapestries submitted for the show, 28 tapestries by 28 weavers/artists were selected for this special exhibition by curators, Deborah Corsini and Alex Friedman, both Tapestry Weavers West weavers/artists.

The exhibition will be on view at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles, 520 South First Street, San Jose, California. (See museum website for hours and protocol:  www.sjquiltmuseum.org)

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Textile Society of America: Museum from Home at SJMQT

Since the temporary closure of San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles in March 2020, many people have asked me, “Now that the museum is closed, what exactly are you working on day-to-day?” My time as an art curator (pre-pandemic) was usually spent coordinating exhibitions with artists and planning related public programs. Since March, we pivoted quickly, diligently producing digital content and extending our reach to fiber art enthusiasts around the globe. As we round the corner into our 6th month of online programming, I am happy to share virtual offerings to Textile Society of America’s followers—our new initiatives that made us wonder, “why weren’t we always doing that?”

Like many other museums, we began utilizing #MuseumFromHome in our posts, and even created a new page on our website, where you can find many of these new projects.

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Patricia Montgomery. The Mentor, Daisy Bates Swing Coat. 2015. Photo Courtesy of the Artist.

Textile Society of America: Kira Dominguez Hultgren at San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles

September 29, 2020
by Shilpa Shah

Kira Dominguez Hultgren, a Bay Area-based textile artist whose multicultural background is represented in her work, takes an anthropological approach in her weaving. Not only is her woven work indicative of her family’s cultural history, it also reveals themes of identity, colonialism, evolution, migration, and exoticism. Dominguez Hultgren focuses her work on the global migration of textile patterning, which is internalized by the history of her family’s migration.

Dominguez Hultgren’s grandmother, Lawhaii (Kikume) Johal, was born and raised in Hawaii. Although she was the daughter of a half-Black, half-White mother and an Indian father, she grew up believing she was native Hawaiian and culturally performing as such, often by wearing flowers in her hair suggestive of hula girls. This identity was partially shaped by Lawhaii’s uncle Al Kikume and mother Whakaii Kikume, who both acted in Hollywood films as embodiments of native Hawaiians. Yet, it is arguable whether their manifestation of native Hawaiianess is authentic or simply the product of colonialism. Offscreen, Al Kikume changed his original last name, Gozier Jackson, to one that sounded more Hawaiian. Records on the U.S. Census sheet also show Kikume’s “Color or Race” selection crossed out twice—first marked as “Neg” for Negro and another time possibly, but unclearly, marked as “Fil” for Filipino. Either way, both crossed out selections with no alternative suggest a negation of his racial identity. This further leads Dominguez Hultgren to question if Hollywood is responsible for authoring her uncle and grandmother’s Hawaiian identities.

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Corinne Takara and the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles

by Frances Phillips | Sep 19, 2020

A growing public awareness of the environmental cost of both fast fashion and traditional textile manufacturing has elevated public desire to learn new and old ways to create positive impact through the fibers we wear. Artist Corinne Takara is collaborating with the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles on a community-sourced art project that draws on local cultural practices and place-based materials to explore the artistic and technological possibilities of biomaterials. Through workshops and online collaborations, participants will experiment alongside the artist with using such materials as coffee grounds, yard waste, and cactus fruit as feedstock for mycelium and bacterial cellulose cultures to begin the process of growth.

Workshops will lead to Takara and community members creating sculptural quilts assembled from “quilt tiles” crafted from these biomaterials and fiber art techniques. The final BioQuilts will be approximately 5 foot x 5 foot by 4 inches, thick and several of them will be exhibited at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. An accompanying website will contain forums for crowd-sourced discoveries, riffs on biomaterial recipes, time-lapse documentation of biomaterial growth, contributed quilt tiles, and participant interviews.

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Mercury News: Montalvo hits the Bay Area’s streets with new public exhibition

Montalvo Arts Center is bursting out of the confines of its Saratoga home with its new public exhibition, “lone some,” which is on display just about everywhere — on billboards, bus shelters and other public spots in the South Bay, East Bay, and San Francisco.

The project grew out of Montalvo’s current program, “SOCIAL: Rethinking Loneliness Together,” and has taken on new relevance in an era where we’re practicing physical distancing, sheltering at home and covering our faces.

“Our current situation of shelter in place and social distancing has created an entirely new level of urgency to the topic of loneliness, which has now become relevant to millions more people,” said Kelly Sicat, Director of Montalvo’s Lucas Artists Program. “These works will be viewed by individuals driving in the safety of their cars, taking socially-distanced walks, or commuting by bus along the Peninsula. We hope ‘lone some’ will not only provoke curiosity, but also spark conversation and connection.”

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KQED Arts The Do List: 'Embroidering Exoticism' at San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles

Using two Punjabi phulkaris embroidered by a relative around 1925 as a starting point, Bay Area artist Kira Dominguez Hultgren traces themes of colonialism, contemporary exoticism and craft in I Was India: Embroidering Exoticism. Her woven work, large-scale and vibrant, incorporates a variety of textures and materials, including climbing rope, wool, Indian cotton and Chinese silk. The show starts March 4, 2020 and runs through April 12, 2020.

KQED: California Report, Interview with Pantea Karimi

KQED: Six Bay Area Art Shows to See in 2020

Kira Dominguez Hultgren, 'Arose,' 2019. (Courtesy the artist and San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles)

March 4–April 12
San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles, San Jose

Using two Punjabi phulkaris embroidered by a relative around 1925 as a starting point, Bay Area artist Kira Dominguez Hultgren traces themes of colonialism, contemporary exoticism and craft. Her woven work, large-scale and vibrant, incorporates a variety of textures and materials, including climbing rope, wool, Indian cotton and Chinese silk. If you can’t wait until March to see her work in person, her solo show at Eleanor Harwood Gallery opens Jan. 11.

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Marianne's Art Muse: Never Ending Thread

You are invited to visit an imaginary space of timeless reverie! With poetic imagery and an excess of extravagant handwork, artist Shirley Cunningham and I present Never Ending Thread at San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, January 18 – April 20. Working with repurposed materials, needle, thread, light and shadow, our individual art installations celebrate the creative drive behind human optimism and perseverance.

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KQED: Mayan Fashion a Feast for the Eyes in San Jose

Ceremonial huipil, made of cotton. Mayan Traje at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles surveys the changing language of traditional dress from the early 20th century to modern day. (Rachael Myrow/KQED)

For thousands of years, Mayan women have woven their own fabrics, and embroidered on top of that to create works of art to wear on holidays and at religious ceremonies. In many ways, this dress has become iconic: what we think of when we think of modern Mayan culture.

The San Francisco Bay Area is home to a growing number of Mayans from Guatemala, including local members of a group called Friends of the Ixchel Museum, which is located in Guatemala City. (Ixchel is the Mayan goddess of weaving, among other things.)

So it was they made curator Amy DiPlacido of the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles an offer she couldn't refuse: an exhibition of Mayan traje (clothing), much of it dating back to the early 20th century, from their private collections here in the United States.

It’s not often you get the chance to move in close and stare at wearable art, but you can in San Jose, where the exhibition Mayan Traje: A Tradition in Transition presents the clothing on walls and manikins out in the open, not parked behind glass.

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In Review: The Art of Labor: Juried Members Exhibition 2018

Area Attractions: San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles

San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles (SJMQT) announced today that it will showcase an innovative array of exhibitions and events.

SJMQT will be displaying Excellence in Fibers (in collaboration with Fiber Art Now Magazine), Suture and Stitch: Mark Newport, and Seeing the Threshold: Jayoung Yoon  through January 13, 2019. Miriam at MoMA:  Miriam Nathan-Roberts, Public and Personal is on view in the Porcella Gallery through November 25, 2018 and Hey, Are you Free? by Wu Yu Jung is on view November 28, 2018- January 13, 2019.

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