Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California
June 8, 2025–November 30, 2025
Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California traces the flow and flourishing of quilts in the context of the Second Great Migration through approximately one hundred quilts representing the work of eighty individuals, many of them women. It is the first group show drawn from a transformative bequest of African American quilts that the museum received in 2019.
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Installation view: Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, June 8–November 30, 2025. Photo by Daria Lugina.
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Installation view: Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, June 8–November 30, 2025. Photo by Daria Lugina.
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Installation view: Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, June 8–November 30, 2025. Photo by Chris Grunder.
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Installation view: Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, June 8–November 30, 2025. Photo by Daria Lugina.
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Installation view: Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, June 8–November 30, 2025. Photo by Daria Lugina.
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Installation view: Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, June 8–November 30, 2025. Photo by Daria Lugina.
- Upcoming
Films - Past
Films - Past
Events
Upcoming Events
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Saturday, November 8, 11:30 AMGallery+Studio / Patching Our Stories Together: Family Lineage in Fabric
See quilts from four generations of one family on view in Routed West, and explore your own lineage in fabric and paper collage.
For ages 6–12 with accompanying adult(s)
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Selected Wednesdays, Sundays, and First Free ThursdaysExhibition Tour: Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California
Graduate students from the Departments of Folklore, History of Art, and African American Studies offer tours of Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California. See calendar for upcoming dates
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Sunday, November 16, 1 PMFrom the Estate of Eli Leon: Textile Improvisations
A presentation of new work created from the Eli Leon fabric collection by acclaimed artists Mansur Nurullah, Jasmine Nyende, and rel robinson, who will share their artwork and take part in a conversation about connecting with this storied material.
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Saturday, November 22, 5:30 PMDimensions Dance Theater
Inspired by the quilts in Routed West, members of Dimensions Dance Theater use rhythm, movement, and verse to piece together their family stories of journeying to California during the last wave of the Great Migration.
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Saturday, June 28; Sunday, November 23, 12–4 PMQuilt Documentation Day
Preserve your African American family history with the African American Quilt Documentation Study Group. Bring in your family quilt to be documented in the national African American Quilt Registry.
Advance registration required
Past Events
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Sunday, November 2, 11 AMVision Access Guided Tour / Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California
Join BAMPFA Education staff for a highly descriptive guided tour of Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California. In a discussion enhanced by touch panels demonstrating a range of materials and techniques, we will discover the vibrant evolution of quiltmaking rooted in Southern Black traditions yet responsive to new lives forged in California.
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Saturday, October 25, 1:30–4:30 PMSymposium: Gathering by the Motheroot
Join us for an afternoon of conversations with contemporary quiltmakers, scholars, curators, and artist-activists reflecting on African American quiltmaking as a present practice and an inheritance to steward for the future.
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Saturday, October 11, 11:30 AMGallery+Studio / Journey to the West (Art, Soul, and Spiritual Healing)
The artistic and spiritual values of the African American quiltmakers featured in Routed West are as central to their legacy as the quilts themselves. In this workshop, construct a quilt design expressing ideas of legacy and creative liberation.
For ages 6–12 with accompanying adult(s)
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Saturday, October 4, 4 PMCANCELED: Exhibition Tour: Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California
Graduate students from the Departments of Folklore, History of Art, and African American Studies offer tours of Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California.
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Saturday, September 27, 2 PMStitching Words, Memory, Community
Poet and scholar Wendy M. Thompson, with artist Trina Michelle Robinson, presents an interactive discussion around the significance of textiles, fiber, words, and retrospection as forms of self-creation, connection, and resistance.
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Saturday, September 20, 1 PMArtists’ Conversation: Quilts as Legacy and Living Practice
Artists Diedrick Brackens, Basil Kincaid, and Adia Millett join Key Jo Lee to discuss how the materiality of quilts—pieced, patched, and passed down—becomes a metaphor for survival, resistance, and boundless Black creativity.
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Sunday, September 14, 1 PMPatchwork Doll Making with Violette Alby and Eliza Fernand
Taking inspiration from the exhibition Routed West and from dolls everywhere, participants will make their own improvisational doll using DIY iron-on appliqué, hand sewing, and their imagination
Space is limited; RSVP required
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Saturday, September 13, 11:30 AMGallery+Studio / Personal Landscape Quilt Blocks
Make an expressive personal landscape in the form of a quilt block with someone in your family.
For ages 6–12 with accompanying adult(s)
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Sunday, September 7, 12–4 PMFabric Postcards with AAQGO
Make and take fabric art on a postcard with members of the African American Quilt Guild of Oakland, who will provide instruction and materials. During your visit, check out some of their work, on view in Routed West.
Drop-in event!
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Selected Wednesdays, Sundays, and First Free Thursdays
Exhibition Tour: Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California
Graduate students from the Departments of Folklore, History of Art, and African American Studies offer tours of Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California. See calendar for upcoming dates
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Sunday, August 31, 1 PMBundle Dyeing with Summer Flowers
Join local artist Melinda Supanee Katz for a magical class exploring color, repetition, and abstraction through the process of bundle dyeing silk with flowers and steam.
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Sunday, July 27, 1 PMImprovisational Quilt Print Workshop
Join artist Matt Katsaros for an afternoon of improvisational quiltmaking through the lens of collage and risograph printing.
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Saturday, July 12, 11:30 AM–1 PMGallery+Studio / Mixed-Media Posters: United We Win!
Make a quilt-inspired mixed-media poster celebrating Bay Area history.
For ages 6–12 with accompanying adult(s)
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Sunday, June 29, 1 PMFabric Postcard Workshop
Discover the joy of working with fabric and thread and create your own miniature quilt!
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Saturday, June 28; Sunday, November 23, 12–4 PM
Quilt Documentation Day
Preserve your African American family history with the African American Quilt Documentation Study Group. Bring in your family quilt to be documented in the national African American Quilt Registry.
Advance registration required
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Sunday, June 22, 2 PM; Thursday, July 3, 1:15 PM; Thursday, October 2, 1:15 PMCurator's Tour: Elaine Yau on Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California
BAMPFA Associate Curator and Academic Liaison Elaine Yau shares in-depth stories of individual quilts in the exhibition that illuminate the bonds of love, kinship, commemoration, and innovative artistry entwined in their making.
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Saturday, June 14, 11:30 AM–1 PMGallery+Studio / Family and Community Quiltmaking
Learn how fabrics migrate from one use to another and end up as quilts, and make a unique quilt square of your own.
For ages 6–12 with accompanying adult(s)
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Sunday, June 8, 11 AM–7 PM
Free Community Day: Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California
Join us for the opening day of Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California with free gallery admission for all!
Free admission all day
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Sunday, June 8, 11:30 AM–2 PMArt Making for All Ages
Drop in and make art in BAMPFA’s Crane Forum space, next to the Art Wall. Materials will be provided.
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Sunday, June 8, 2:30 PM
Curator's Welcome: Routed West
To celebrate the opening of Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California, BAMPFA Associate Curator and Academic Liaison Elaine Yau offers a brief overview of the exhibition and shares the journey of organizing the show from over three thousand quilts in the museum collection.
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Saturday, June 7, 1–7 PMPreview Day: Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California
BAMPFA members and UC Berkeley students, faculty, and staff are invited to enjoy early access to the exhibition Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California.
For BAMPFA members and UC Berkeley students, faculty, and staff.
Past Films
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