Of Salt and Spirit: Black Quilters in the American South Exhibition Coming to the Mississippi Museum of Art in Fall 2024
July 16, 2024
The Mississippi Museum of Art (MMA) announces the upcoming exhibition Of Salt and Spirit: Black Quilters in the American South on view from November 16, 2024 through April 13, 2025.
The exhibition will showcase over 50 handmade and machine–stitched quilts from the Museum's permanent collection, spanning the 1960s to 2010, highlighting the rich and diverse heritage of Black quilters in the American South including the Carolinas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. Featured artists include Annie Dennis, Gwendolyn Magee, Annie Mae Morgan, Geraldine Nash, Hystercine Rankin, Emma Russell, Elizabeth T. Scott, Joyce J. Scott, and Mabel Williams. After its MMA presentation, the exhibition will travel nationally.
"The quilts on display represent both the artistry and a deep cultural narrative conveyed by the makers over decades. They are a testament to resilience, creativity, and community," said Dr. Sharbreon Plummer, Of Salt and Spirit curator. "We invite everyone to engage with these powerful stories and appreciate the intricate work of these talented artists.”
Over the past two decades, MMA has amassed one of the largest quilt collections in the American South embodying the artistry and community connections of the art form. In 2022, MMA’s collection expanded with a generous gift from the Kohler Foundation of 131 quilts from the personal collection of American photographer and folklorist Roland L. Freeman. Twenty works from the Freeman collection are featured in the exhibition.
A hallmark of the installation is the inclusion of in-exhibition engagement spaces, designed to provide visitors and students with tactile opportunities to deepen their experience of the exhibition and its themes. Visitors will encounter quilts made from various fabrics including cotton, polyester, wool, and velvet. The choice of fabrics often reveals the decade in which the quilts were made, providing historical context.
A comprehensive catalogue will accompany the exhibition, featuring contributions from Dr. Lauren Cross, Gail-Oxford Associate Curator of American Decorative Art, The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, CA; Danielle Mason, Texas based folklorist, cultural preservationist, and writer; and an interview by Lydia Jasper, Assistant Curator of the Permanent Collection at MMA, with Crossroads Quilters Geraldine Nash and Gustina Atlas, published by the University Press of Mississippi.
Of Salt and Spirit: Black Quilters in the American South, a presentation in the Myra Green and Lynn Green Root Memorial Exhibition Series, is presented with support from Henry Luce Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, Art Dealers Association Foundation of America, and Visit Jackson.