What does it mean to make a collective artwork in a community of individuals? We ask you to consider this question through Wish Quilt, an interactive project that honors the global history of quilt making. As a creative, often collaborative practice, quilting has connected generations of people and diverse materials across time. Quilts provide warmth and comfort, can be forms of activism and artistic expression, and often hold the wishes their makers have for their families and communities.
We invite you to create your own square—perhaps taking inspiration from traditional quilting patterns, geometric designs found in MoMA’s collection, or your own aspirations—which will be added to the communal artwork on these walls. We encourage you to find connections between this installation’s growing collection of squares and the patchwork quilts made for centuries by quilt makers both in the United States and around the world.
Commemorating the 250th anniversary of the United States’s founding, this project links us to one another and to this country’s creative history. Visitors will be able to participate in the Wish Quilt activity until the quilt is completed, and the finished installation will be on display through August 9, 2026.
To discover more examples of early American art-making, visit the exhibition American Folk Art: Revisiting the Collection of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, on Floor 3.
The Museum of Modern Art gratefully acknowledges generous support for programming presented on the occasion of the nation’s 250th anniversary.
Wish Quilt: A Collective Activity is made possible by Paula Crown.
American Folk Art: Revisiting the Collection of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller is made possible by Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III.
Arts Educator Memberships are made possible by Candace King Weir.
Generous support for these initiatives is provided by the Thomas H. Lee and Ann Tenenbaum Endowed Fund.