The Atlanta History Center is kind of a Swiss Army Knife museum, covering a wide variety of topics from the Civil War to Civil Rights to the story of Atlanta area golf and the Trail of Tears. Each could almost stock a museum on its own.
And that's true as well for the museum's consideration of Folk Art, specifically Southern folk art. The exhibit starts with a series of broad statements that answer basic questions about folk art, and what it is. The labels in the cases tell the story...
Traditional forms and items made in traditional ways today, and plastic and wire baskets that use traditional forms
Tools of the cobbler's trade, and a pair of hand-made children's boots... Below, a collection of face jugs, a tradition across several cultures, originating from Africa.
And then the big question: There's folk art everywhere—what are the things that make Southern folk art Southern, or what make any culture's folk art their own?
The museum traces 'southern-ness' to the trades and industries of the land, through the years when the South was largely agricultural, including large plantations worked by enslaved people as well as small freeholdings.
Cotton, timber, fishing and more are highlighted with exhibits, as is Gumbo, a food tradition in the lowland South that embodies many different cultures. Its name is an African word for okra, the filé powder came from Native Americans, the flour roux thickening from France.
Native American and African roots are sources for the basket-making that began with making practical containers for everyday use and has become collectible art.
Woodcarving and whittling, the museum points out, was an expected skill for boys across a number of Southern cultures, and is involved with both practical objects and ones with religious or community significance. Woodwork of other sorts also became part of the culture, including local styles of furniture.
Needlework of many kinds is woven into folk art, with quilting high on the list. The origins are from Europe, but over the years changes came from the South's other heritages, not only in techniques but in themes and materials.
Musical instruments and music itself played a big role in forming local cultures and artistic traditions. Handmade and homemade instruments in the collection show origins from both Africa and Europe, using available materials, including the cigar box banjo below. Below that, a kora, an African instrument originally made of gourds and skin.
With the 20th century came an acceleration in availability of relatively cheap factory-made goods, and more connection with other areas through radio and more. Many folk traditions of making what was needed became less common. But in recent years, especially after World War II, traditional folk arts began getting new respect, this time as art.
Collectors began taking an interest in folk pottery and other work, and local groups in some areas began working to preserve not only the products of folk art, but the skills. In some cases, increasing tourism has played a role, by creating a market for craft work such as the sweetgrass baskets that have their origins among African-Americans in the coastal South.
Quilting, too, has had a revival—not that it ever really disappeared—in many parts of the country, as well as less-well-known crafts such as decoy carving, seen in our title photo.
At the end of the gallery, the museum sets out a bold statement: We are all folk artists, saying "Even in a society dominated by the mass media and mass-produced goods, many feel a need for hands-on traditions. The childhood learning of arts such as paper airplanes and Halloween jack-o-lanterns, urban legends that 'happened to a friend of a friend.' jokes about current events...fill a void in our lives."
For more TravelGumbo articles on the Atlanta History Center and its collections, click HERE
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