San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles in San Jose, Santa Clara County, United States | Museum

The San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles in San Jose CA, is recognized as the oldest quilt Museum in the United States was founded in 1977 by the Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association.  It was incorporated in 1986 as a nonprofit public benefit Museum administered under the direction of a community based Board of Trustees.   In 2003 the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles partnered with venture philanthropists to form the 520 South First LLC to buy and renovate an historic property a 13000 squarefoot facility originally built in 1923 as its new permanent home.  In September 2005 the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles celebrated its Grand Opening at 520 South First Street in downtown San Jose CA.

A retrospective of the phenomenal career of Marian Clayden, master dyer, textile artist and fashion designer, the exhibition at San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles spans her textile art designed for the wall through to her later works designed for the body.

Trained as a painter, Clayden’s first major commission came in 1968 when she was engaged to provide textiles for costumes and ritual and ceremonial cloth for the traveling production of the musical Hair. Known for her mastery of an Indonesian resist-dyeing technique called plangi, her art and designs can be found in the permanent collections of Museums worldwide.

Shoescapes explores the embedded meanings and iconic qualities of shoes to develop a narrative of this uniquely intriguing subject. The exhibition examines shoes from a variety of perspectives in multiple media, including shoe structures, shoe portraits, and landscapes created from stitching, recycled textiles, and digitally printed fabrics.