About the Artist
Sonié Joi Thompson-Ruffin is a renowned, self-taught textile artist, author, lecturer, teacher, curator, and cultural storyteller. Her fabric art and written stories have established her prominence within the national arts community. In Ruffin’s quilt-inspired art there is an inter-stitching not just of fabric but of community and culture. Ms. Ruffin’s designs and stories are distinctive; her narratives share stories from her life’s experiences, the Black African American culture, hardships, triumphs, and courage of change. Ruffin shares the stories of incredible contributions made by enslaved Africans to world culture. Her designs are contemporary, improvisational and intuitive; she paints and embellishes fabric, incorporating the boldness of African textiles, mixed with hand dyed or commercial print fabrics.
She has exhibited, lectured, hosted quilt guilds, and led workshops on African American quilting at museums, galleries, and institutions, across the United States, Europe, and Africa, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery, the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, University of Missouri Kansas City, Lincoln University,Harvard University, the American Jazz Museum, the New England Quilt Museum,Truman Medical Center, Kansas City Museum, Gadsden Museum, Ghana National Museum, the Mulvane Museum, International Quilt Market, National Quilt Museum, Leedy Voulkos Art Center, and the Bethesda Medical Rotunda.
Sonié is a Charlotte Street Foundation Fellow, Art Omi Fellow, Kansas Masters, and 2012 National Women’s Museum Women to Watch: Fiber and Textile finalist, an Arts KC recipient and 2011 Artist Alliance scholarship recipient. Her artwork can be found in the collections of galleries, museums, as well as private and corporate collections across the country. Her fabric collections, “My African Village and Drums of Afrika,” have appeared in national quilt magazines. To her credit, she is the author of Soulful Art of African American Quilts and Opening Day published by Kansas City Star quilt book division. Sonié is the Visiting Curator for the American Jazz Museum’s Changing Gallery.