Transmissions: Quilts for Trans People

Transmissions is a queer textile project based in California. This fundraiser hopes to support our growing network of trans artists as we make quilts and share them around the world.

Transmissions creates a channel through which trans people remind each other of our inherent belonging. We do this by making each other quilts. Quilts have been given as gifts to mark transition across time and cultures. They help us see ourselves on longer time scales, which is an experience that many trans people can't access. May these quilts keep us living. May they surround us with each other.

Transmissions is both an international and hyper local project with roots in Berkeley, CA. We are comprised of a collaborative network of over 100 trans artists across 14 states and 4 countries. Primary project chapters are located California, Oregon, Maine and Wisconsin.

The project is interested in pairing two mediums--textiles and audio-- to create a living archive. People are first nominated by their friends/community to receive a quilt. Once selected, the quilt recipient is connected with a trans artist to make a quilt for them. The recipient goes through an oral histories interview that lives alongside their quilt. As the art grows, we plan to enter our mixed media archive into a rich network of existing trans archival projects.

We are bringing this project across the world as a traveling exhibition with associated workshops. Each exhibition will be a combination of project quilts alongside a local trans artist working in another medium. We have an upcoming exhibition with the Berkeley Public Library in June 2025. The exhibit will show the first batch of 20 quilts alongside workshops and other events throughout the month. Looking ahead to 2026, in the spring we are bringing the exhibition to Portland, Maine, and in the summer to the UK Festival of Quilts. We hope to share these quilts broadly and welcome ideas or invitations to bring them to your region.

Your donations will be used to pay trans artists to make quilts for trans people, to bring the show to places where recipients and artists live, to host textile workshops that engage community members, and to contribute to direct gofundmes for trans people.

Please find more information at transquilts.net. There you can also find contact information to reach out directly. We are always looking to expand the reach of this project - folding in new artists, mediums and ideas into this living organism. This project did not respond to a particular administration or policy, but we feel the urgency of this work. May we remind our siblings how held, cared for and magical they are.