SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING THE DESIGNATION OF THE MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN QUILTER’S SOCIETY OF THE UNITED STATES.

SEC. 335. SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING THE DESIGNATION OF THE MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN QUILTER’S SOCIETY OF THE UNITED STATES.(a) Findings.—Congress finds that—(1) the Museum of the American Quilter’s Society is the largest quilt museum in the world, with a total of 13,400 square feet of exhibition space and more than 150 quilts exhibited year-round in its 3 galleries;(2) the mission of the Museum is to educate the local, national, and international public about the art, history, and heritage of quiltmaking;(3) quilts in the Museum’s permanent collection are made by quilters from 44 of the 50 States and many foreign countries;122 STAT. 794(4) the Museum, centrally located in Paducah, Kentucky, and open to the public year-round, averages 40,000 visitors per year;(5) individuals from all 50 States and from more than 25 foreign countries have visited the Museum;(6) the Museum’s Friends, an organization dedicated to supporting and sustaining the Museum, also has members in all 50 States, with 84 percent of members living more than 60 miles from the Museum;(7) many members of the Museum’s Friends have supported the Museum annually since the Museum began in 1991;(8) quilts exhibited in the Museum are representative of the Nation and its cultures thanks to the wide diversity of themes and topics, quilts, and quiltmakers; and(9) the Museum of the American Quilter’s Society has national significance and support.(b) Sense of Congress.—It is the sense of Congress that the Museum of the American Quilter’s Society, located at 215 Jefferson Street, Paducah, Kentucky, should be designated as the “National Quilt Museum of the United States”.