Jess Bailey is an art historian and writer based in Scotland.
Born in Northern California, she loves a public library, a rugged coastline, and an uncommon work of art. She tells stories through material and visual histories, in classrooms and on the page.
Currently
Dr Jess Bailey is Lecturer in Premodern Art History at the University of Edinburgh.
Bailey is writing non-fiction for the wider public about the art history of quilts and working on an edited volume about premodern protest with Professor Bob Mills among other academic research projects. She collaborates on public arts programming with curator Dr. Sharbreon Plummer (The People’s Quilting Bee lecture series, Tatter, NYC, 2023) amplifying intersectional art histories. In 2024, she is convening Gender & Cloth (Part I, Spring & Part II, Autumn) for the Paul Mellon Centre, Yale’s institute for the study of British art in London.
Bailey runs the arts education project Public Library Quilts (@publiclibraryquilts) centring the many ways quilts and their histories are community care.
Contact