Shelly Zegart

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Shelly Zegart
A smiling woman wrapped in a patchwork quilt. She has reddish hair worn to her ears, and wears glasses, red lipstick, dangly earrings, and a necklace of round reflective shells.
Zegart in 2018, wrapped in a quilt
Born
Rochelle Weiss

(1941-03-11)March 11, 1941
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
DiedJuly 22, 2025(2025-07-22) (aged 84)
Louisville, Kentucky
EducationUniversity of Michigan
Known forQuilting art advocacy work
PartnerKenneth Nolan Zegart
Children2, including Amy Zegart
Websitewww.shellyquilts.com

Shelly Zegart (March 11, 1941 – July 22, 2025)[1][2] was an American quilt collector, historian, and advocate. She was involved in the establishment of several quilting organizations and is best known for her work promoting quilting as an art form and archiving quilting history.[3]

Early life and education

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Shelly Zegart was born Rochelle Weiss in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on March 11, 1941.[1][2][4] Her mother, Thelma (1915–2011), was born in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, and was a pianist and member of an all-female band that travelled the East Coast of the United States in the 1930s.[3][5][6] Her father, David H. Weiss (1905–1979),[4] was a Jewish refugee who fled from Czechoslovakia to the United States. He served 6 terms as a Pennsylvania state representative starting in 1937, then as assistant district attorney, and then was elected as a judge.[3][7]

Zegart was raised in Monessen, Pennsylvania, and had two siblings.[1] The family was one of the few Jewish families in their town.[3][a] As a child, she was interested in collecting, and often went antiquing with her mother.[3]

She earned a Bachelor's degree in education at the University of Michigan.[1][2] In 1968 she moved with her family to Louisville, Kentucky.

Quilting career

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She developed an interest in quilts in the 1970s and began decorating her home with them.[3] From then on, she was a quilt collector, lecturer, exhibition curator and an author on various aspects of quilt history and aesthetics. Zegart owned a personal collection of nineteenth- and twentieth-century quilts. Zegart's collection was popular with Japanese audiences and international quilt enthusiasts.[8] She worked against the exclusion of quilts from the art world and the diminishment of women's art as "women's work", and advocated for quilting to be taken seriously and treated just like any other art form.[3][9]

Zegart was an early leader of quilt documentation in the United States. Zegart, Eleanor Bingham Miller, and Eunice Ray came together in 1981 to found The Kentucky Quilt Project, the first statewide quilt documentation project in the United States.[3][10][11] This project grew into Kentucky to the World, which she founded in 2013 and was the CEO of until her death. She co-founded the Alliance for American Quilts (also known as the Quilt Alliance) in 1993 and led its development until 2006,[12] and was involved in the establishment of the Quilt Index.[3][13] Her first international project was a 1987 exhibit of Kentucky quilts for the Women's Committee of the National Trust of Australia in Sydney.[14]

Her book American Quilt Collections: Antique Quilt Masterpieces was published by Nihon Vogue Ltd. in Tokyo in the late 1990s.[15] In her latest days, she was executive producer and host of the nine-part documentary series Why Quilts Matter, History, Art & Politics, which aired on KET (Kentucky's public telivision station) and other PBS stations across the United States.[3][16][17][18][19] Zegart spoke at events for groups such as the Rotary Club of Louisville,[20] and appeared on KET's Kentucky Collectibles show, appraising the value of a quilt and discussing its history with a guest.[21] She gave lectures on topics such as "Quilts as Women's Art", "Political Quilts", and "Misperceptions versus Reality in the World of Old Quilts." She also wrote articles about quilting history, including the history of individual quilts, both antique and contemporary.

In 2001, the Art Institute of Chicago acquired Zegart's collection.[3] Her personal files, along with the records of the Kentucky Quilt Project and the Alliance for American Quilts, were donated to the University of Louisville.[3] Zegart also donated her personal library of quilt and decorative arts publications to Western Kentucky University.[3] She facilitated Judy Chicago's 2014 donation of the International Honor Quilt to the University of Louisville.[22][23][24][25] Her work and legacy was highlighted in the 2008 exhibition titled Shelly Zegart: Passionate About Quilts.[26][27]

Personal life

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She married her husband, Kenneth Zegart, on June 17, 1962.[28] Kenneth was an OB/GYN and a hobbyist magician. The two antiqued and visited flea markets together, and shared a passion for women's art.[3] Some of the quilts they bought were displayed on the walls of Kenneth's clinic, and according to Kentucky to the World, this act "exemplified the shared values of their marriage: thoughtful beauty, respect for women’s stories, and the power of art to create comfort."[2] Shelly was Jewish, and according to Kentucky to the World, she "lived the idea of tikkun olam, the Jewish call to repair the world."[2]

Kenneth died on May 6, 2025.[29] Shelly died weeks later, on July 22, 2025, at her home in Louisville. She was 84.[1][28][30][31] Her services were held at Congregation Adath Israel Brith Sholom.[1][28][31]

The Zegarts' daughter, Amy Zegart, is a professor and expert in national intelligence and cybersecurity.[3]

Awards and legacy

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In 2020, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear awarded her the Folk Heritage Award for her work advocating for the quilting medium and for quilt artists.[28]

List of works

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Writing

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  • "Old Maid, New Woman" (1986), originally published in The Quilt Digest[32]
  • "The Ties That Bind Friendship Quilt" – May 1995[33]
  • American Quilt Collections: Antique Quilt Masterpieces (1997)[15]

See also

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Topics

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People

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Miscellaneous

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Footnotes

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  1. ^ For more information about the history of Jewish people in the state, see History of the Jews in Pennsylvania.

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f "Shelly Zegart Obituary (2025) - Louisville, KY - Herman Meyer & Son, Inc". Legacy.com. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Tribute to Shelly Weiss Zegart". Kentucky to the World. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Cochran, Taylor (January 22, 2021). "Shelly Zegart: The Great American Quilter of Community". Kentucky to the World. Archived from the original on 2025-08-10. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  4. ^ a b "Report of Memorial Services" (PDF). westbar.org (Transcript). Westmoreland Law Journal. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2025-08-10. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  5. ^ "Thelma Brody Weiss". Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle. July 28, 2025. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  6. ^ "Thelma Weiss Obituary (2011) - Louisville, KY". Courier-Journal. Retrieved 2025-08-10 – via Legacy.com.
  7. ^ "David H. Weiss". Pennsylvania House Archives. Archived from the original on 2024-08-06. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  8. ^ "Shelly Zegart Quilts, Etc". www.shellyquilts.com. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
  9. ^ Hensel, Deborah Quinn (Spring 2014). "Shelly Zegart: Why Quilts Matter" (PDF). Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA). 24 (2): 11–13.
  10. ^ "The QuiltJournal Mission Statement (abridged)". The Quilt Journal (Insert). 2 (1). 1993 – via The Quilt Index.
  11. ^ "The Quilt Projects: Fifteen Years Later". Folk Art: Magazine of the Museum of American Folk Art. Spring 1996. Archived from the original on 2024-02-21. Retrieved 2025-08-10 – via shellyquilts.com.
  12. ^ "UofL Libraries: Shelly Zegart Papers, 1993-2006: Home". University of Louisville. Retrieved 2025-08-11.
  13. ^ "In Memoriam - Shelly Zegart, Co-Founder of the Quilt Alliance". The Quilt Show. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  14. ^ "Shelly Zegart | Folkstreams". www.folkstreams.net. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
  15. ^ a b Zegart, Shelly (1997). American Quilt Collections: Antique Quilt Masterpieces (in Japanese) (1st ed.). Tokyo: Nihon Vogue, Ltd. ISBN 978-4529027694.
  16. ^ the Kentucky Quilt Project. "Why Quilts Matter" (PDF). Why Quilts Matters. Retrieved 2017-12-13.
  17. ^ "Why Quilts Matter: History, Art & Politics - Interview: Shelly Zegart for LEO". www.whyquiltsmatter.org. Retrieved 2017-12-13.
  18. ^ Zoellner, Andrew. "Q&A: Shelly Zegart, Why Quilts Matter". Craft Council. Retrieved 2017-12-13.
  19. ^ "Alumni Association University of Michigan Late Fall 2011". umalumni.com. p. 42. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  20. ^ Rotary Club of Louisville (January 25, 2024). Rotary Meeting January 25, 2024 Featuring Shelly Zegart, Kentucky To The World. 15 minutes in. Retrieved 2025-08-10 – via YouTube.
  21. ^ KET - Kentucky Educational Television (March 24, 2016). Hart Co. KY Quilt | Kentucky Collectibles. Retrieved 2025-08-10 – via YouTube.
  22. ^ Shaikun, Phyllis (March 3, 2016). "Hite Art Institute Presents the International Honor Quilt". Jewish Community of Louisville. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  23. ^ "UofL Art Collection Receives 'International Honor Quilt' from Through the Flower". www.shellyquilts.com. Archived from the original on 2024-02-21. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  24. ^ "International Honor Quilt". Through the Flower. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  25. ^ Kramer, Elizabeth (February 26, 2014). "University of Louisville becomes home of International Honor Quilt". The Courier-Journal. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  26. ^ News, The Daily (August 22, 2008). "Shelly Zegart Retrospective at Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft". Bowling Green Daily News. Retrieved 2025-08-11. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  27. ^ "Shelly Zegart: Passionate About Quilts" (PDF). Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft (Digitized pamphlet). 2008. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-12-09. Retrieved 2025-08-11 – via shellyquilts.com.
  28. ^ a b c d Van Hoy, Shea (July 24, 2025). "Kentucky to the World founder and CEO Shelly Zegart dies". Louisville Business First. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  29. ^ "Kenneth Norton Zegart, M.D. Obituary". Courier-Journal. May 10, 2025. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  30. ^ Milne, Amy (July 24, 2025). "In Memory of Shelly Zegart". Quilt Alliance. Archived (JPG) from the original on 2025-08-10. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  31. ^ a b "Shelly Zegart Obituary". Courier-Journal. July 24, 2025. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  32. ^ Zegart, Shelly (1986). "Old Maid, New Woman" (PDF). The Quilt Digest. 4. San Francisco: The Quilt Digest Press. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-05-16 – via shellyquilts.com.
  33. ^ Zegart, Shelly (May 1995). "The Tripod Quilt". www.rit.edu. Retrieved 2025-08-11.
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