The National Quilt Museum is Paducah's essential stop and the reason many travellers know the city at all. Its galleries focus on contemporary quilt and fibre art, with rotating exhibitions that show just how far the form has moved beyond bedcovers and family heirlooms.
Give it time even if quilting is not your thing. The best works are dense with colour, pattern, politics, memory, and technical bravado, and the museum gives Paducah's UNESCO Creative City status a clear anchor.