The Exhibit Hall contains online galleries created by guest curators. Guest curators bring together research materials and quilts found in the Quilt Index with other resources to produce a virtual online exhibition.

Since Kentucky: Surveying State Quilts
In 1981 The Kentucky Quilt Project was the first large scale effort to
document a state's quilts. Since then, groups in most states, as well as
Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand and Australia have undertaken quilt
surveys, thereby spawning the largest grassroots movement in the decorative
arts in the last half of the 20th century. Project co-founder Shelly Zegart
contributed this essay on documentation project history.

Mary Schafer: Quilter, Quilt Collector, and Quilt Historian
This on-line exhibit, curated by Beth Donaldson of MSU Museum, is the first virtual gallery created from the quilts in the Index. It serves as an example of how digital data in the Index can be used to construct exhibitions on a wide variety of themes. This example features Mary Schafer, a resident of Flushing, Michigan who is an outstanding quilter, a pioneer quilt historian and an educator.

Redwork: A Textile Tradition in America
This exhibition explores the history and art of Redwork--a style of needlework so-named because the technique usually entails using red thread to embroider designs onto a plain white background--that was especially popular in the United States from ca. 1875-1925. Redwork: A Textile Tradition in America explores the technological, social, and cultural factors that led to the development and dissemination of this art form and, in particular, how one cultural event-- in this case the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia-- can stimulate popular engagement in an art form. The exhibit draws on objects, ephemera, and archival materials from the Michigan State University Museum collections, in particular, the Deborah Harding Redwork Collection.