These fragile quilts by Black craftspeople need to be preserved but the federal government has pulled the funds

The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) contains a remarkable collection of around 3,000 African-American quilts, which were left to the museum in 2019. This collection is significant not only for its volume but also for the meticulous records kept by the late collector Eli Leon. As BAMPFA prepares for the exhibition 'Routed West: Twentieth Century African American Quilts in California,' it confronts urgent conservation needs for nearly half of these quilts, exacerbated by the termination of key federal grants aimed at supporting their preservation efforts.

"These are beautiful artworks that can be enjoyed from an aesthetic point of view," said BAMPFA's associate curator and academic liaison Elaine Yau, who curated the museum's upcoming exhibition, Routed West: Twentieth Century African American Quilts in California.

"IMLS has determined that your grant is unfortunately no longer consistent with the agency's priorities and no longer serves the interest of the United States and the IMLS Program," said the letter, signed by IMLS acting director Keith Sonderling.

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