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The Threads That Bind: St. Louis Women’s Quilting, Culture, and Hope

Community Quilt Exhibition & Documentary Screening

📍 14th Street Gallery, St. Louis
📅 Exhibition Dates: January 15–31, 2026
🎥 Closing Reception & Documentary Screening: January 31, 2026 at 1:00

✨ Official Selection, 2025 St. Louis International Film Festival

About the Exhibit

Exhibit available by appointment only January 16-31, 2026. Call 314-320-3166.

FREE tickets for January 31, 2026 documentary viewing and reception.

Join us for a powerful community exhibition celebrating the rich and often untold quilting traditions of St. Louis. This multi-week exhibit features quilts by local fabric artists whose work reflects memory, culture, resilience, and hope. Together, these quilts tell stories that cross generations, neighborhoods, cultures, and lived experiences.

St. Louis holds a significant yet under-documented history of Black, White, and multiracial women quilters. This exhibition invites you to witness those stories—stitched, layered, and lovingly shared.

Closing Reception & Film Screening

The exhibition concludes with a special reception and screening of the documentary
🎬 The Threads That Bind

This ethnographic film was featured in the 2025 St. Louis International Film Festival and brings together women who self-identify as:

• African American
• White
• First Nation / Cherokee
• Russian Jewish immigrant
• Artists representing diverse physical abilities

All are connected through the shared language of quilting.

About the Film

The Threads That Bind:

• Documents personal and intimate stories of women quilters
• Explores how quilting connects women across culture and difference
• Highlights the cultural and spiritual importance of quilting
• Shares common artistic practices and lived experiences
• Expands cross-cultural knowledge and quilting skills
• Engages community through shared meals and table conversations
• Follows the creation of a collective community quilt

This is a story of making, listening, remembering, and becoming—together.

About the Filmmaker & Project Creator

Paulette Sankofa, Ed.D. is the founder of Aging Well Renaissance and a lifelong advocate for art, culture, and community wellness. With advanced study in education, theology, international relations, and gerontology, she brings a deeply holistic and woman-centered lens to her work.

Her project, The Threads That Bind: St. Louis Women’s Quilting, Culture, and Hope, builds on her 2024 book Black St. Louis Women’s Quilting and Cuisine: Stories of Love and Hope, expanding the conversation to include cross-cultural voices while honoring elders, creativity, and collective care.

Who Should Attend

• Quilters and fiber artists
• Culture bearers and storytellers
• Elders and intergenerational families
• Educators, historians, and community organizers
• Anyone curious about art as connection and healing

🪡 Come experience quilting as story, resistance, and relationship.
🧵 Come witness how threads—like people—bind us together.

Also check out other Arts events in St. Louis, Entertainment events in St. Louis, Exhibitions in St. Louis.