Exhibition and program originate from arts outreach initiative
AUBURN, Ala — Located in Alabama, Auburn University is in a region rich in all forms of creative expression — visual arts, music, food, literature and fashion. Additionally, the university’s growing art collection, including the Imprinting the South Collection, features numerous artists from and influenced by the culture, providing ample opportunities for collaboration among students, faculty, artists, museum professionals and peer institutions. The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University announces the 2026 Auburn Forum for Southern Art and Culture, set for Sat., Feb. 7, beginning with a quilting workshop at 9 a.m. CT and a subsequent series of panels starting at 2 p.m. CT at the museum. Launched in 2024, the Forum is dedicated to institutionalizing object-based learning and museum-enhanced pedagogy through the artistic and scholarly investigation of the American South. In addition to the free, in-person gathering at the museum, the program will be available on YouTube via @thejulemuseum.
The 2024 Auburn Forum
The 2026 Forum is centered around the exhibition, “Sew Their Names: Quilting, Creativity, and Activism.” On view at The Jule from Tues. Jan. 20 to Thurs., Jul. 2, 2026, the exhibition features quilts and other art objects that reframe the American story through the lens of belonging, inviting visitors to consider how art with ties to Lowndes County, Alabama, has long served as a vehicle for memory and transformation.
“University museums like Auburn’s are essential sites for research and discovery, bringing together creative practice and scholarly inquiry. By supporting this intersection, the interpretation of cultural and historical narratives is expanded. The Auburn Forum exemplifies The Jule’s dedication to creative scholarship in higher education and to creating impactful, intellectually rich experiences for both students and scholars,” said Cindi Malinick, museum executive director.
One of those scholars is Nikki Silva, who will serve as a moderator and is one-half of The Kitchen Sisters radio production team. She and her creative partners have worked for more than 40 years creating hundreds of stories for NPR and the “The Kitchen Sisters Present” podcast, winning duPont-Columbia, Peabody and James Beard Awards alongside her co-producer, Davia Nelson. Silva will lead and guide discussions with exhibiting artists and facilitators of the Sew Their Name Project. Sew Their Names artists, including Mercedes Braxton, Wini McQueen, Charlie Lucas, and Yvonne Wells, will discuss their work and craft with Silva, as well as the origins of the living memorial with project organizers Judge Susan Walker and Rev. Dale Braxton. Silva and her production team will release interviews they conducted across the state, highlighting Auburn’s exhibition and the state’s artistic legacy on a forthcoming installment of “The Kitchen Sisters Present.”
The exhibition and Forum have origins in a multiyear outreach initiative, “Museum in Motion.” Through this program, The Jule partnered with The Sew Their Names Project.
The Sew Their Names Project honors members of the Alabama Baptist Church who were enslaved and whose names are rarely recorded in other historical documents. The Mt. Willing quilters memorialize these individuals by stitching their names and producing quilts.
“Over the past year, The Jule partnered on intergenerational workshops through five exhibitions produced in Hale County and Florence, Alabama,” said Chris Molinski, Janet L. Nolan Director of Curatorial and Educational Affairs. “At each stop, community participants worked with the Mt. Willing quilters to embroider names — either those found in the Alabama Baptist Archives or ones from their family histories.”
Molinski also highlighted the interactive nature of this year’s Forum. The day starts with drop-in workshops with the Mt. Willing Quilters. As space and time allow, attendees of any skill level can memorialize a name and create a block from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. before the sessions begin at 2 p.m.
Another component of the exhibition is the exploration of work by American visual artists Noah Purifoy and Bill Traylor and the influence of the Lowndes County Freedom Organization, or LCFO. The exhibition includes a new museum purchase of a Purifoy collage, along with paintings and drawings by Traylor on loan
A Sew Their Names participant stitches a name.
from a private collector, and a poster designed for the LCFO, which served as a precursor to the Black Panther Party.
“These objects hold particular significance within the broader narrative of American art and history,” said Molinski. “As these works demonstrate, the creative production that emerged from the area surrounding Lowndes County, Alabama, had a tremendous international impact on the history of modern art. As a museum interested in testing new ways of thinking about art and artists, it is tremendously exciting to feature these historically important objects, alongside our exhibition of the Sew Their Names quilts.”
During the Forum, Auburn University’s Hollifield Associate Professor of Southern History, Elijah Gaddis, will moderate a session with Darby English, Carl Darling Buck Professor of Art History at the University of Chicago; Leslie Umberger, curator of folk and self-taught art at the Smithsonian Art Museum; and Es-pranza Humphrey, assistant curator of collections at Poster House in New York City, to consider the local histories connected to artists Noah Purifoy and Bill Traylor, and the influence of printmaking on the Black Panther Party that emerged from this early LCFO poster.
“Both programs prompt questions into our theme of belonging: How are artists from Alabama helping to define a new story about American art?” said Molinski. “We are eager to have these conversations with our university community all semester.”
Support for “Sew Their Names: Quilting, Creativity and Activism” provided by the Art Dealers Association of America Foundation. The program is open to students, faculty and the public, with free admission. For more information about the Forum, please visit jcsm.auburn.edu.
