IHQ now has an online searchable database

In October 2013, Through the Flower (TTF), a 501(c)3 non-profit feminist art organization founded in 1978 by Judy Chicago, gifted the International Honor Quilt (IHQ) to the University of Louisville and its Hite Art Institute to be permanently available for a variety of educational purposes, including academic research and study; curriculum programming; ongoing exhibitions; and opportunities for loan.

Louisville resident Shelly Zegart, an international quilt expert, Executive Director and host of the PBS broadcast series, Why Quilts Matter: History, Art and Politics, http://www.whyquiltsmatter.org/welcome/ served as catalyst for placing the collection with the University. She now chairs the governance committee that oversees the integration and use of the Honor Quilt at the University.

The International Honor Quilt (IHQ) is a democratic, egalitarian, collaborative artwork that has become an emblematic feminist archetype and a collective example of art that is culturally, historically and aesthetically significant. Its individual panels combine to create a spectacular collaborative artwork that carry the stories of its 539 individual makers, the women’s organizations and the individual honorees that inspired, motivated and sustained women worldwide.

The IHQ project, initiated by Judy Chicago in 1980 “to extend the spirit of The Dinner Party," continued to grow through the 1980s and ‘90s as it toured throughout the world with Chicago’s iconic The Dinner Party exhibition. After being in storage since 1996, when it was last exhibited in conjunction with The Dinner Party at UCLA’s Armand Hammer Museum, it is now being made available as a unique resource for academic research and study; curriculum programming; ongoing exhibitions; and opportunities for loan, ensuring that these women’s voices not be lost.

As an initial step in disseminating information about the IHQ, it has now been added to the University of Louisville Ekstrom Libraries’ Digital Collections: http://uofl.me/intl-honor-quilt.

Included in this searchable database are images of all individual quilt panels that make up the assembled artwork, the makers’ stories and registrarial documentation materials initially compiled by Dr. Marilee Schmit Nason, and now expanded by the staff of the Hite Art Institute.

Questions, further information and appointments to view the quilt in person may be obtained by contacting the International Honor Quilt Collection at ihqinfo@louisville.edu or calling (502) 852-1431.