Decatur, GA – The Department of Art and Art History at Agnes Scott College announced the opening of Searching for Home, one in a series of quadrennial exhibitions generously sponsored by the Margaret Virginia Phillip Art Endowment Fund, a press release says.

“We couldn’t be sure if the show would go on once Covid-19 and its impact became our new normal,” said Nell Ruby, Art and Art History Program Chair at Agnes Scott. “I and our college leaders are particularly proud that we managed to pull all of the components of such an endeavor together and that we have created a safe way for people to visit the Gallery.”

Searching for Home, more than a year in the making, includes 22 regional participants representing the disciplines of sculpture, painting, photography, fiber arts, quilt making, textile stories, collage, lithography, architecture, and mixed media.

According to the press release, the 16 living artists and organizations in the exhibition are diverse in age, race, homeland, and perspective. Five additional works from three artists are on loan to the exhibition by way of the CJ Williams Collection of African-American artists from the South: well-known, primarily self-taught artists Clementine Hunter, Sister Gertrude Morgan and Bernice Sims. Deceased Agnes Scott alumnae and prolific architect Leila Ross Wilburn is represented through her series of plan books for middle-class Americans looking to build a home, without the expensive fees of professionals like herself.

THE MAD HOUSERS, an Atlanta nonprofit with a mission to advocate and provide shelter for homeless individuals and families in Atlanta, shares the construction plans it gives to volunteers to help them create simple shelters. And, Agnes Scott alumnae and supporter Virginia Phillip loaned her own Beverly Buchanan lithograph to this exhibition.

The exhibition was curated by three-time Dalton Gallery visiting curator Dorothy (Dot) Moye, a long-time Atlanta arts consultant, connector and advisor to arts organizations, corporations and individuals. She founded The Book as Art program with the Decatur Arts Alliance and has also curated Book as Art shows for Hartsfield Jackson International Atlanta Airport and Georgia Center for the Book.

“I’d never heard of the Dalton Gallery before Dot invited me to take part,” said textile story artist Dawn Williams Boyd. “Now that I’ve been here, I can say it’s a beautiful space and a diverse show that Agnes Scott should be lauded for going out on a limb to share. I’ll be back.”

Williams Boyd’s work has shown across the US and in Europe and is known for its keen attention to historic detail as well as current societal issues; her two pieces in the show cover modern homelessness and the 1927 Evangeline flood in New Orleans. Other such motifs emerge in the work of all the participants.

More information and a full list of participating artists can be found at daltongallery.agnesscott.org/exhibtions/searching-for-home and in the exhibition’s online catalog.

Five people can visit the gallery at a time during its open hours on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from now through Dec. 12. Advance sign-up through Eventbrite is recommended and masks are mandatory at all times while on campus and in the Gallery.

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