A $3 million gift from Lakewood’s Avenir Foundation means that more than 7,000 square feet at the Denver Art Museum can be reclaimed to showcase its textile art gallery.
Currently, that space is used for storage. When the reclaimed 7,000 square feet opens in summer 2013, long-hidden textiles will go on display alongside an in-gallery education and interactive space for visitors.
The museum’s collection of more than 5,000 textile objects includes fiber art, quilts, coverlets, Indian and Indonesian textiles, tapestries, lace, samplers and rugs, said textile art curator Alice Zrebiec.
Avenir Foundation is a charitable organization that, through president Alice Wallace, created the textile museum at Colorado State University. Other beneficiaries include the Emma Willard School, Wallace’s alma mater, and the anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd.
Interest in textiles drove the popularity of exhibits including “The Quilts of Gee’s Bend,” the museum’s current “Threads of Heaven” exhibit of clothing from China’s last dynasty and its upcoming Yves Saint Laurent retrospective.
Among the museum’s vast textile collection are a quilt made from the museum’s magazine and a portrait of woven newspaper.
Claire Martin: 303-954-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com
