. There’s of course no factual connection whatsoever between Cameron Crowe’s 1996 film Jerry Maquire and the International Quilt Study Center & Museum’s current exhibition “Perspectives: Art, Craft, Design, and the Studio Quilt.” But, for about four minutes and thirty-three seconds, this exhibition, curated by Michael James and Sandra Sider, really forced me to rethink about a scene in Crowe’s film when Dorothy told Jerry Maquire to “shut up, just shut up. You had me at "hello." Stunning works by studio quilt artists, such as Dorothy Caldwell's "A Lake/A Bowl,” Ursula Rauch’s “The Sorrow of the Black Women,” Barbara Watler’s “Autumn 1-4,” and Terrie Hancock Mangat’s “Lake Superior Stick Bed and Quilt,” elegantly filled IQSC’s quiet gallery. Hello, and I was wowed.

In 1997, as a result of the gift of nearly 950 quilts from native Nebraskans Ardis & Robert James, the International Quilt Study Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln was founded and soon established itself as world’s largest publicly held quilt collection. Its current location, opened in 2008 with funds from the University of Nebraska Foundation and James family, is a gorgeous “green” building designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects to house 3000 quilts, a research space, and galleries.

International Quilt Study Center & Museum