Washington, D.C. is wrapping itself in one of the most joyful exhibitions of the season. Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California, on view at the National Museum of Women in the Arts from September 18, 2026 through January 17, 2027, gathers nearly 80 quilted works by more than 70 artists spanning 120 years of creativity.
Shown on the East Coast for the very first time, the exhibition tells a uniquely American story through the lens of the Second Great Migration. Between 1940 and 1970, some five million African Americans journeyed from the rural South toward cities in the North and West in search of a more equitable life — and many carried quilts with them, not only for warmth and protection, but as vessels of ancestral memory and cultural survival.
The quilts dazzle with kaleidoscopic color and inventive pattern: patchwork stitched from tobacco pouches, denim and work clothes, ties, and treasured found fabrics. Teachers, nurses, seamstresses, truck drivers and shipyard workers used quilting to reclaim time for themselves, turning everyday scraps into heirlooms that honor ancestors and pass down craft across generations.
Organized by the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Routed West is part of NMWA’s participation in Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026. A perfect outing for families, art lovers and anyone who believes that beauty can be stitched from resilience.
Photo: National Museum of Women in the Arts; Sherry Ann Byrd (pieced) and Irene Bankhead (quilted), “Cultural Merger at Crossroads, USA,” 1990. Photo by Kevin Candland.
