QUILT MUSEUM AND GALLERY TO CLOSE ITS DOORS IN OCTOBER, 2015


The Quilters’ Guild has today announced that the Quilt Museum and Gallery in York is to close at the end of October, 2015. The Quilt Museum and Gallery has been working very hard to achieve challenging targets for income from visitors and business ventures but, sadly, these targets have not been achievable.
The Quilters’ Guild has provided financial support to The Quilt Museum through its own reserves and fundraising activities but these funds cannot provide the Quilt Museum and Gallery with a sustainable future in the long term.
Guild President, Vivien Finch said “The decision to close the Quilt Museum and Gallery is profoundly disappointing, but we can take comfort in the knowledge that since it opened we have welcomed over 75,000 people to over 50 exhibitions and introduced many visitors to the joy of quilts and quilting. In addition, we have taught sewing skills to over 8,000 children and adults.”
“The number of paying visitors has ranged between 10,000 and 12,500 per year and we now know that this is a considerable achievement for a small “niche” museum, commented Museum Manager, Fiona Diaper.
The Quilt Museum and Gallery will remain open until 31 October, 2015, and visitors will be able to enjoy the exhibitions planned for 2015 including a major exhibition with Kaffe Fassett entitled Ancestral Gifts, showing new quilts created by Kaffe in response to quilts in The Quilters’ Guild Collection.
The Quilters’ Guild will continue to care for its Collection of historic and contemporary quilts and are concentrating their efforts on finding a location where the public can gain access to quilts by pre-organised visits. They are also exploring a wide range of opportunities for items from the Collection to be exhibited in other locations.

The Quilt Museum and Gallery was  Britain's first museum dedicated to quiltmaking and textile arts.
The Museum is managed by The Quilters' Guild of the British Isles, an educational charity founded in 1979. The  aim was to promote the crafts of patchwork, appliqué and quilting through changing exhibitions of historic and contemporary textiles. The Quilt Museum and Gallery was  independently funded through admissions, grants and donations.