James Museum exhibit depicts Black history through quilts

A remarkable new exhibit at the James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art chronicles the contributions of Black people to the historical American West, and beyond.

Black Pioneers: Legacy in the American West is a collection of unique pictorial quilts, each hand-fashioned by members of the national Women of Color Quilters Network (WCQN).

The exhibit – the first of its kind – opens Saturday and will be on view through Jan. 8.

The Bulldogger, @2021 April Shipp. Athlete, cowboy and film star Bill Pickett created the rodeo technique known as bulldogging.

Through these unique, multi-colored and multi-textured quilts, the artists tell the stories of Esteban, the enslaved African who guided explorer Panfilo de Narvaez on his exploration of North America in the 1520s, through more contemporary figures like filmmaker Oscar Micheaux and jazz musician Miles Davis.

The final stop on the timeline depicts Los Angeles’ 1965 Watts riots.

“When people think in terms of quilts, they think in terms of warmth, hearth, home, protection,” says Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi, historian and founder of WCQN, in a video playing in the James gallery. “It’s a non-threatening way to tell very, very difficult subjects.

“People don’t want to read about them, but they will come to see them in the museum. I think it makes a difference in how people feel. If people know the history of African Americans in this country, they see us in a different light.”

There are certainly quilts depicting great moments, and great successes, in history. Take, for example, the story of self-made millionaire Sarah Breedlove, who in Denver in the early 1900s created and sold hair products for Black women, under the company name Madame CJ Walker.

Carolyn Crump, The Game Changer, 2018, ©Carolyn Crump.

Breedlove, the James Museum’s Curator of Art Emily Kapes says proudly, has just been made into a Barbie doll, part of the Mattel company’s Inspiring Women line.

“Black history in the West is not a topic that’s in a lot of history books – or art museums,” Kapes says. “Or pop culture.

“So to highlight some of these individuals that most people won’t be familiar with is something really important. Because these individuals contributed so much to the making of the West, and the settling of the West, and their pioneering achievements deserve to be recognized.”

Madame CJ Walker: “Empowerment in a Tin,” 2021, Wendy Kendrick.Kapes and James Museum Executive Director Laura Hine are thrilled with the way Black Pioneers, which began as a simple idea about telling Black stories, has come to fruition.

“It didn’t necessarily start with quilts as the idea, but it’s a perfect medium for telling these stories,” Kapes explains. “It’s a way to connect with people. And I think there’s so much versatility in the medium; these quilters have taken the art form to the next level, with texture, with adding found objects, sometimes even creating 3D elements with the fabric. It allows the viewer to go deeply into the story.”

In her video interview, Mazloomi stresses the historical significance of the exhibit. “So many of these stories are not necessarily known,” she enthuses. “We’ve always been contributors in so many ways to the fabric of this country, and people coming to the museum to see this show will see that.

“Especially in a museum setting, it’s a safe place to talk about these difficult subjects. And that’s important.”

James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art website

Photo by Bill DeYoung.