Mrs. Nancy O’Bryant Puentes

Austin, TX

Nancy O’Bryant Puentes is the executive vice president of Quilts, Inc., which produces the International Quilt Festival, dubbed “The World’s Fair of Quilts” by Southern Living magazine. A fifth-generation quilter and author of four quilt-related books, she is a founder of three nonprofit organizations: the International Quilt Association, the Alliance for American Quilts (now the Quilt Alliance), and the Texas Quilt Museum. Drawing on her interest in quilt conservation, Mrs. Puentes coordinated a hands-on quilt conservation and restoration seminar and laboratory in 1984, the first to bring quilters, conservators, and museum professionals together. She also wrote the first book to address quilt care for the layperson: First Aid for Family Quilts (1986).

Mrs. Puentes holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from The University of Texas at Austin and is a founding member of the Director’s Circle at the Briscoe Center.