The Original Makers: Folk Art from the Cargo Collection

Exhibition Website

Jun 16 2018 - Dec 30 2018

In commemoration of Alabama’s Bicentennial, the Birmingham Museum of Art is proud to present Original Makers: Folk Art from the Cargo Collection, an exhibition featuring more than 100 outstanding works of folk art from the Museum’s permanent collection.

As a new generation of Southern makers explores the joy of creating, this exhibition celebrates the artists who have lived in our midst, inspired by their life experiences, their faith, their communities, and the landscape around them. Documenting many Southern ways of life, in all their variety, Original Makers explores themes that have inspired self-taught and craft artists over many decades, including scenes of daily life and work, nature, faith and religion, patriotism, and music. Works of art range from stunning quilts, drawings and paintings, to wooden and metal sculptures, and functional objects such as bird houses – all made in Alabama and several neighboring states.

A special focus on the Reverend Benjamin Franklin Perkins will evoke the aesthetic of his home and property which was densely covered with paintings and signs inviting passersby to visit his church. The exhibition will also explore the deep-rooted Alabama tradition of quilt making with examples of quilts that date from the mid-1800s to the late 1900s, and include traditional patterns, crazy quilts, story quilts, and a quilt produced by the Freedom Quilting Bee.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website

  • Various Media
  • American
  • Leroy Almon
  • Nora Ezell
  • Sibyl Gibson
  • Chuckie Williams
  • Yvonne Wells
  • Fred Webster
  • and others

Exhibition Venues & Dates