Coming in 2020
Will be on view in the Elizabeth M. and Joseph M. Handley Gallery.
Folk potters from Maine to Texas fashioned an amazing and colorful array of plates, jugs, sculptures, and other ceramic bodies throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. This exhibition will explore the cultural and artistic expressions embedded in these wares. While many of were functional — storing food or liquids — their creators enhanced their appeal with whimsy and color. A simple three-gallon cream pot is hard to resist when decorated with a smiling turnip drawn in cobalt blue. These objects are also reminders of the people who made them. A large brown-glazed storage jar made before the Civil War represents the work of enslaved potter David Drake who worked in Edgefield, South Carolina.
