Skip Navigation

International Quilt Study Center

Advisory Board of the International Quilt Study Center & Museum

In Memoriam
Sara Dillow, a long-time supporter of the International Quilt Study Center, a member of the International Advisory Board, and recently retired Acquisitions Coordinator, passed away on February 8, 2008, following a brief illness. Her contributions to the quilting world were countless. She will be remembered as a collector, quiltmaker, past president of the American Quilt Study Group, and as founder and past president of the Nebraska State Quilt Guild. She shared her passion for quilts and quilting generously and touched the lives of quilt lovers the world over.

A memorial has been established at the University of Nebraska Foundation in honor of the Sara Rhodes Dillow Memorial Fund supporting the University of Nebraska Quilt Study Center c/o University Foundation, 1010 Lincoln Mall Suite 300, Lincoln, Nebraska 68508.

  • Current Advisory Board Members
    * Janet Berlo of New York
    Art historian; Professor of Art History, University of Rochester. Berlo has taught at the University of Missouri, UCLA, Harvard and Yale universities. She is author of the award-winning book Wild by Design: Two Hundred Years of Innovation and Artistry in American Quilts.

    * Xenia Cord of Indiana
    Owner of Legacy Quilts, an antique quilts brokerage; historian, teacher, writer; partner and producer of Quilt America, a national convention for quilters held annually in Indianapolis from 1990-2000; newly elected president of American Quilt Study Group.

    * Marianne Fons of Iowa
    Publisher; quiltmaker; designer; television host, former co-editor of Fons and Porter Love of Quilting magazine.

    * Annette Gero of Australia
    Collector, historian, lecturer; president of the Quilt Study Group of Australia and founder of the Sydney Quilt Study Group; Fellow, Royal Society of Arts; author of "Historic Australian Quilts".

    * Brenda Groelz of Colorado
    Director of Marketing and Education,Handi Quilter Company; owner of Gray Wind Publishing, a quilt pattern company; author; teacher; lecturer; quilt tour planner and leader; founder of Nebraska State Quilt Guild

    * Jonathan Holstein of New York
    Curator of a number of quilt exhibitions including the seminal exhibition "Abstract Design in American Quilts" for the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City in 1971; lecturer, author of numerous articles, catalogs and books on quilts including "American Pieced Quilts," "The Pieced Quilt: An American Design Tradition" and "Abstract Design in American Quilts: A Biography of an Exhibition."

    * Ralph James of Massachusetts
    Representative of Robert and Ardis James Foundation. Executive Director of Executive Education at Harvard Business School.

    * Robert & Ardis James of New York
    Collectors; founders and benefactors of the International Quilt Study Center & Museum.

    * Gita Khandelwal of India
    Founder/owner of 'Gitanjali' export company of fine needlework and quilts from India representing approximately 40 artisans. Collector of Khadhi fabrics - a traditional fabric of India initiated by Mahatma Ghandhi.

    * Soon-Hee Kim of Korea
    Founder/Director, Chojun Textile and Quilt Art Museum, Seoul

    * George W. Neubert of Brownville, Nebraska
    Director of the Flatwater Folk Art Museum; Fine art consultant in museum management, exhibition programming, collection development and public art policy; (former director of the San Antonio Museum of Art, Sheldon Art Gallery, former Associate Director of the San Francisco Museum of Art). Artist/Sculptor.

    *Sue Prichard of Great Britain
    Curator of Contemporary Textiles, Victorian and Albert Museum

    * Olga Prins-Lukowski and Simon Prins of the Netherlands
    Co-Founders of the European Art Quilt Foundation; organizers of European Art Quilts I-IV; editors of several exhibition catalogs; quiltmakers.

    * Nobuaki Seto of Japan
    President of Nihon Vogue company, Ltd.,a multifaceted company involved in publishing (publisher of Quilt Japan), education, and special events,and Executive Director of the Japan Handicraft Instructors' Association(JHIA).JHIA organizes the biennial Quilt Japan Exhibition.

    * John M. (Jack) Walsh III of New Jersey
    Collector and patron of the art quilt.

    * Alice Zrebiec of New Mexico
    Independent curator and consultant; consulting Curator of Textile Art for the Denver Art Museum; former curator of textiles in the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; author and lecturer on diverse aspects of textiles and tapestries.



  • Ex-Officio Board Members
    * Patricia Crews
    Director, International Quilt Study Center & Museum; Willa Cather Professor, Dept. of Textiles, Clothing and Design, University of Nebraska, Lincoln

    * Michael James
    Chair, Department of Textiles, Clothing & Design, University of Nebraska, Lincoln


  • Former Board Members
    Mary Leman Austin
    Pascale Bebronne
    Robert Cargo
    Sara Dillow (deceased)
    Raymond Dobard
    Bettina Havig
    Felicitas Lampert
    Jean Ray Laury
    Bridget Long
    Ursula E McCracken (deceased)
    Penny McMorris
    Mieko Miyama
    Dorothy Osler
    Yvonne Porcella
    Linda Pumphrey
    Anne Scott
    Tadanobu Seto
    Lotus Stack
    Patricia Steuert
    Maude Wahlman
    Donna Wilder