Kith & Kin: The Quilts of Gee’s Bend come to Bath
This spring, the American Museum & Gardens at Claverton Manor, Bath presents Kith & Kin: The Quilts of Gee’s Bend (14 February – 21 June 2026), a major exhibition that sits naturally within the museum’s long-standing engagement with American quilts and material culture. Co-organised by the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), Dublin, and Souls Grown Deep, this is the only opportunity to see the exhibition in the UK.
Sally Mae Pettway Mixon, Sweep, 2021, ©2025 ARS, NY and DACS, London. Photos by Stephen Pitkin/Pitkin Studio, courtesy Souls Grown Deep.
The American Museum is uniquely placed to host this body of work. Its collection of more than 12,000 objects spans American decorative arts, folk art and textiles, with over 250 quilts recognised as among the most significant in Europe. Ranging from the eighteenth to the mid-twentieth century, these works are shown throughout the museum, where quilts are understood not only as domestic objects but as expressions of history, creativity and lived experience. Within this context, the quilts of Gee’s Bend feel both familiar and freshly revealed.
Leola Pettway and Qunnie Pettway working at the Freedom Quilting Bee, 1972, © Mary McCarthy, courtesy Souls Grown Deep.
Made by African American women from a remote river island community in Alabama, the quilts on display were created from necessity, shaped by lives lived under conditions of economic hardship and racial segregation. Using worn clothing and everyday textiles, the women developed a distinctive visual language marked by bold colour, improvisation and an instinctive approach to composition. These qualities have led to frequent comparisons with modernist abstraction, yet the quilts remain rooted in use, family and place.
Qunnie Pettway Zigzag and bars (quilting bee name: “Rik Rak”), detail, c. 1975. Photo: Stephen Pitkin / Pitkin Studio Courtesy Souls Grown Deep © Qunnie Pettway /Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York and DACS, London
Kith & Kin focuses on the passing of skills and knowledge across generations. Quilt-making in Gee’s Bend has traditionally been taught from mother to daughter, and the exhibition traces these relationships through closely connected makers. Quilts by Mary Lee Bendolph and her daughter Essie Bendolph Pettway are shown alongside those by Rita Mae Pettway and Louisiana P. Bendolph, while the work of Qunnie Pettway appears in dialogue with that of her daughter Loretta Pettway Bennett and her sister Sally Mae Pettway Mixon. Seen together, the quilts reveal shared approaches as well as deeply individual voices.
Mary Lee Bendolph, 2019 Gee's Bend, Alabama Photo: Stephen Pitkin / Pitkin Studio Courtesy Souls Grown Deep
The civil rights movement brought wider attention to the women of Gee’s Bend, whose work came to represent strength, self-reliance and cultural pride. As Jesse Jackson once observed, America is less like a single piece of cloth than a quilt, made up of many parts held together by a common thread — an idea that resonates strongly here.
Presented within the wider setting of the American Museum’s permanent collections, Kith & Kin: The Quilts of Gee’s Bend celebrates quilt-making as both a practical tradition and a powerful form of artistic expression, ensuring that the legacy of these remarkable women continues to be seen, valued and shared.
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Further Information:
Kith & Kin: The Quilts of Gee’s Bend opens at the American Museum and Gardens, Bath, on 14 February 2026, and is on show until 21 June 2026.
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Image Credits:
Lead: Essie Bendolph Pettway, Platform, 2022. Photos by Stephen Pitkin/Pitkin Studio, courtesy Souls Grown Deep.
All further images as credited in photo captions.