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Awards: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, 1989.
Surface Design Association Critical Writing Award for the development and
application of critical vocabulary in the field of surface design, 1990.
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Selected Publications:
Something Pertaining to God: The Patchwork Art of Rosie Lee Tompkins. Shelburne Museum., Shelburne, Vermont, May-Oct, 2007.
Accidentally on Purpose: The Aesthetic Management of Irregularities in African Textiles and African-American Quilts, Figge Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa, Nov 2006-Feb, 2007.
Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Four Generations of African-American Quiltmakers. Museum of Craft and Folk Art, San Francisco, 2006; Brattleboro Museum, Brattleboro, VT, Aug-Nov 2007.
Improving the Bow Tie. Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, CA, June-Aug 2005.
"Too Short to Save: African-American Improvisational String Quilts," in A Report from the Museum of Craft and Folk Art, San Francisco Museum of Craft and Folk Art, Vol. 18, No. 1, 2002
Let It Shine: Improvisation in African-American Star Quilts (exhibition catalog), William D. Cannon Art Gallery, San Diego, CA. 2001.
Review of My Quilts and Me: The Diary of an American Quilter by Nora McKeown Ezell, in Tributaries: Journal of the Alabama Folklife Association, Issue No. 3, 2000, pp. 75-79.
No Two Alike: African-American Improvisations on a Traditional Patchwork Pattern (exhibition catalog), South Carolina State Museum, 1998.
"African Influence on the American Block-style Quilt," in Sally Gant, ed., African Impact on the Material Culture of the Americas (collected symposium papers), Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, Old Salem Inc., Winston-Salem, NC, 1998.
Something Else to See: Improvisational Bordering Styles in African-American Quilts (exhibition catalog), University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 1997.
"Shadows of the Divine Perfection," in Lawrence Rinder, ed., Rosie Lee Tompkins (exhibition catalog), Berkeley Art Museum, University of California, 1997.
"Showing Up": African-American Maximum-contrast Quilts (exhibition catalog), Richmond Art Center, 1996.
Arbie Williams Transforms the Britches Quilt (exhibition catalog), University of California, Santa Cruz, 1993.
Models in the Mind: African Prototypes in American Patchwork (exhibition catalog), Winston-Salem State University, 1992.
"Cross-strip Patterning in African Textiles and African-American Quilts," Surface Design Journal, Vol.15, #1, Fall, 1990, pp.6-8,38.
Who'd a Thought It: Improvisation in African-American Quiltmaking (exhibition catalog), Introduction by Robert Farris Thompson, San Francisco Craft and Folk Art Museum, 1988.
"Wrapping Home Around Me: How the Patchwork Quilt became a Medium for the Expression of African Values," in Rambling On My Mind (exhibition catalog), Museum of African-American Life and Culture, Dallas, 1987, pp.18-33.
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Selected Exhibitions:
Sunshine and Surprises: African American Quilts from the Eli Leon and Robert Cargo Collections. Festival of Quilts, Birmingham, UK. Aug 16-19, 2007.
Something Pertaining to God: The Patchwork Art of Rosie Lee Tompkins. Shelburne Museum., Shelburne, Vermont, May-Oct, 2007.
Approximate Measure: Improvisational African-American Quilts. Shirley/Jones Gallery, 235 Corry Street, Yellow Springs, Ohio, Jan-March 2007.
Accidentally on Purpose: The Aesthetic Management of Irregularities in African Textiles and African-American Quilts, Figge Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa, Nov 2006-Feb, 2007.
Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Four Generations of African-American Quiltmakers. Museum of Craft and Folk Art, San Francisco, 2006; Brattleboro Museum, Brattleboro, VT, Aug-Nov 2007.
Let It Shine: Improvisation in African-American Star Quilts, William D. Cannon Art Gallery, Carlsbad, CA, Sept-Nov 2001; Los Angeles Craft and Folk Art Museum, June-Sept 2002; Colorado Springs Pioneer Museum, Feb-March 2003; New England Quilt Museum, Sept-Nov 2003; New York State Museum, Jan-March 2004
No Two Alike: African-American Improvisations on a Traditional Patchwork Pattern, South Carolina State Museum, Oct 1998-March 1999; Vermont Folklife Center, Sept-Nov 1999; Colorado Springs Pioneer Museum, Jan-March 2000; National Afro-American Museum, April-June 2001; Santa Rosa Junior College, Feb-March 2003.