News Release

Material culture of American South
to be theme of four public lectures

CHAPEL HILL — The Gee’s Bend, Ala., quilters will be among topics examined in four talks on “Material Culture of the American South,” beginning Feb. 15 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

How blacks transformed plantations, artists of the early South and women photographers of the Great Depression also will be discussed in the free public lectures.  The American studies curriculum in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Center for the Study of the American South at UNC will sponsor the talks.

Dates and details will be as follows:

• Feb. 15, 7 p.m. “From Those Who Wore the Shoe: Acknowledging the African-American Achievement on the Plantation.”  Dr. John Michael Vlach, professor of American studies and anthropology at George Washington University, will discuss how blacks transformed plantations from sites of captivity into places marked by their own cultural signatures. Location: Pleasants Family Assembly Room, Wilson Library, off South Road across from the Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower.

• Feb. 26, 7 p.m.: “Quilts on the Wire: Art and Display in Gee’s Bend, Alabama.” Dr. Bernard L. Herman, chair and professor of art history at the University of Delaware, will discuss the quilt makers of Gee’s Bend, Ala., who have risen dramatically in the contemporary art world since their first major exhibition in 2002. Regardless of fame, the artists of Gee’s Bend have shared a long history of holding their art up for the scrutiny and judgment of others. Hitchcock Multipurpose Room, Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History, off South Road near the Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower.

• March 21, 7 p.m.: “Learning from the Arts of the Early South: Museums and the Marketplace.” Sumpter Priddy III, an independent scholar and gallery owner in Alexandria, Va., is keenly interested in the artists and artisans of early America — and in studying their material products as a means to better understand the past. Priddy graduated from the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture at the University of Delaware and was curator for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation for six years. Location: Hitchcock Multipurpose Room, Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History, off South Road near the Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower.

• April 10, 3:30 p.m.: “Women Photographers of the FSA, Working in the South.” Beverly W. Brannan, curator of photography in the prints and photographs division of the Library of Congress, will discuss women photographers who worked for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) during the Great Depression. The photographs constitute one of America’s greatest artistic legacies. 271 Hamilton Hall, off Raleigh Street north of Davis Library.

For information, contact Marcie Cohen Ferris, assistant professor, curriculum in American studies, (919) 843-9881, ferrism@email.unc.edu.

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College of Arts and Sciences contact: Kim Weaver Spurr, (919) 962-4093, spurrk@email.unc.edu
News Services contact: L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589