The regional Center for the Quilt is the newest initiative in UD's recently established Center for American Material Culture Studies.

Housed in the College of Arts and Science, the material culture center focuses on the study of the ways people imagine, create, use and interpret their physical world. The outcome of several years of planning, the center is designed to build on the University's nationally recognized strengths in such fields as material culture, historic preservation, museum studies and historical archaeology.

According to its director, Bernard Herman, who also is Edward F. and Elizabeth Goodman Professor of Art History, the center capitalizes on longstanding institutional partnerships with the Winterthur and Hagley museums, Historical Society of Delaware and the Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs. The interdisciplinary center also serves as an umbrella for such UD programs as the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture, Museum Studies Program, Black American Studies Program, Center for Historic Architecture and Design and the Visual Communications Group, as well as the University Gallery.

One of the center's hallmarks is its emphasis on undergraduate education, Herman says.