San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles

Mission:

The mission of the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles is to promote the art, craft, and history of quilts and textiles. The Museum advocates on behalf of quilts and textiles as a distinctly accessible and unifying visual, sculptural, and kinetic art form pioneered and practiced by people worldwide for thousands of years to create objects of beauty, use, and meaning.

Vision:

The Museum is the nexus for fiber artists, art lovers, collectors, quilters, and crafters who share a passion for fiber art and a deep commitment to its preservation and evolution.

The Museum is known for its

- Warm welcoming atmosphere where powerful compelling exhibitions explore the stories and artistry of traditional and new fiber art and artists;
- Intriguing collaborations with traditional and innovative partners;
- Fun creative participatory activities that bring out the artist in all of us; and
- First-class visitor experiences that bring people to the museum time and time again.

Just as our founders created the Museum through vision and heroic volunteer efforts, current and new generations of volunteers, artists, quilters, crafters and patrons partner with staff and board to imagine and ensure the Museum’s present and future.

Core Values:

- We believe fiber art can be created, appreciated and enjoyed by all people.
- We celebrate quilts and textiles as forms of artistic and cultural expression that are at the core of human experience, especially that of women and people of color.
- We marvel at the resourcefulness and inventiveness as seen in the use of diverse fiber materials and the wealth of techniques used to add beauty and give meaning to our lives.
- We embrace both the fiber art that interprets established community traditions, aesthetics, and values, as well as work that seeks to express a uniquely personal aesthetic and experience.