Past Exhibitions

During the past decade, the Kent State University Museum has continued to build our world class collection of fashions and textiles. Because the permanent collection now includes nearly 30,000 objects, we must be selective about what we can accept. The array of pieces on display in this exhibition highlight the Museum’s priority to broaden the diversity of makers and designs in the collection and to augment important areas where we have little or no representation.

This collection of handbags comes to the KSU Museum from longtime friend and supporter of the Museum, Audrey M. Kail.  Mrs. Kail passed away early this year and she wanted her sparkling collection of bags by Judith Leiber and Kathrine Baumann to be shared with students and the public for years to come.

Drawing from the rich collection of Kent State University Museum, this exhibition showcases common features shared by regional costume across Europe. In its original context in villages, regional dress carefully marked social and cultural differences. Religious affiliation, gender, age, and marital status were all instantly recognizable at a glance by members of the community. A person’s outfit signaled which village or region they came from. Focusing on these signs of difference obscures the common vocabulary that rural residents across Europe used to shape their clothing.

Vincent Quevedo is an award-winning designer and Associate Professor of the Kent State University School of Fashion. This exhibition of recent designs and garments explores Quevedo’s inventive experiments and manipulation of materials. Discharged fabrics, real leather against faux leather, industrial cords are all cut, patched, quilted, crocheted and transformed. Fortuna, the goddess of luck and fate, embodies his willingness to be open and follow where the process will lead. Image: Detail, 1980s Redux, 2019, Courtesy of the designer.

The exhibition Culture/Counterculture looks at fashions of the 1960s and early 1970s with a particular focus on the generation gap during that period. The exhibition is scheduled to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Kent State’s shootings on May 4, 1970. Almost 50 years ago, the shootings of Kent State University students by the Ohio National Guard brought to a head the cultural divides that had split the nation. There was a sharp contrast between supporters of the establishment and those opposed – the culture and the counterculture.

As part of the 50th year commemoration of May 4, the Kent State University School of Fashion and Merchandising is presenting designs by faculty and students that use fashion to create a dialogue about war and peace, political discourse, conflict resolution and social justice today. 

The history of quilts in Ohio is in many ways a reflection of the history of Ohio itself since the early nineteenth century. Just as early settlers boasted a variety of origins ranging from migrants from New England to Germans who arrived either directly from Europe or from earlier settlements in Pennsylvania, their quilt traditions reflected their diverse origins. Quilt making took off around the middle of the nineteenth century owing to improvements in textile and thread production which made materials accessible and increasingly affordable.

Glass, like coats, dresses or shoes, is a time capsule of human invention, art, style and social change. More than 3500 years ago, our ancestors discovered that sand (which consists of silica, soda ash and lime) when heated to very high temperatures becomes molten. In this state it can be shaped and molded as it cools into a solid form.

About Focus: Fiber 2019 Focus: Fiber is a biennial national juried exhibition of contemporary fiber art. This exhibition is co-sponsored by the Textile Art Alliance of the Cleveland Museum of Art (TAA), and Kent State University Museum. The mission of TAA is to increase appreciation of the textile arts through lectures, workshops, and exhibitions, and to support the textile collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Juror