What Quilts Carry: Eighteen Years of Quilting at KCAI

September 4–December 5, 2026
Leedy-Voulkos Art Center
Main Gallery
Kansas City, MO

Curated by Kim Eichler-Messmer

What Quilts Carry: Eighteen Years of Quilting at KCAI brings together work by alumni of the studio course “Quilts: More than the Sum of Their Parts,” developed and taught by Kim Eichler-Messmer at the Kansas City Art Institute over the past eighteen years. The exhibition traces how a shared introduction to quilting, as a system of process, materials, and form, continues to shape the artists’ practices long after the class ends. Work by Eichler-Messmer is included alongside the alumni, reflecting the ongoing relationship between teaching and studio practice. Presented together, the works reflect a range of approaches, from traditional quilting to expanded material practices, linked by an ongoing engagement with structure, attention, and process.