AUBURN, Ala — As fingers carefully weave needles and thread through colorful swatches of fabric, voices begin to fill the sunlit café space of The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art. Hymns ebb and flow, songs matching the rhythm of fingers’ careful stitches that begin to take the shape of letters. The air feels both heavy with importance and light with relief. It’s Saturday, February 7—the day of The Jule’s third annual Auburn Forum for Southern Art and Culture—and the Mt. Willing Quilters are leading participants young and old, experienced and novice, in the artistic and careful craft of remembrance by sewing names once thought lost.
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. The 2026 Forum centered around the exhibition, “Sew Their Names: Quilting, Creativity, and Activism,” asking visitors to consider how art with ties to Lowndes County, Alabama has served as vehicles for memory and transformation. Both the exhibition and the Forum were the culmination of a multiyear outreach initiative, “Museum in Motion,” through which The Jule partnered with Sew Their Names to bring the remembrance project, quilts and workshops to participants across the state of Alabama.
“As a university art museum—a teaching museum—The Jule is committed to object-based research and instruction that is high impact, multidisciplinary and deeply engaged with our communities,” said Cindi Malinick, executive director of Auburn’s art museum. “That commitment is at the heart of this year’s Forum theme and grounded in our exhibition.”
The February event welcomed people from across the Auburn community, starting with morning quilting workshops led by Forum speaker and Sew Their Names leader Reverand Dale Braxton and the Mt. Willing Quilters. The day continued with afternoon sessions that focused on the origins of the Sew Their Names project; the history of intersection between art and activism in Lowndes County, Alabama; and a discussion with prominent exhibiting artists Charlie Lucas, Mercedes Braxton, Wini McQueen and Yvonne Wells
“I loved the idea of [Sew Their Names],” said Wini McQueen, renowned Southern quilter whose work “Somebody’s Calling My Name” is currently on view at The Jule. “I felt like whatever energy that went into it would grow and be very meaningful.” Sew Their Names began as a memorializing project after the discovery of enslaved people’s names in the archives of the Alabama Baptist Church held at Samford University. During the time of slavery prior to the Civil War, enslaved people’s identities were often not recorded, lost to time and history. In the wake of the death of George Floyd and the emerging Black Lives Matter movement, the quilters of Mt. Willing, a small, unincorporated town in Lowndes County, began honoring these rediscovered individuals by creating remembrance quilts with names stitched into quilting blocks of fabric.
“I think all of the parents back in [the pre-Civil War era] wanted better for their children, even if they could not see it,” said Mercedes Braxton, one of The Jule’s exhibiting artists, discussing her work, “Oh Freedom” at this year’s Forum. “These names—people who lived so long ago and worked so very hard and endured so many things that we can only imagine… They wanted better for their children. So, if they couldn’t get the freedom, they still long for freedom to come.”
This year’s Forum also examined work by American visual artists Noah Purifoy and Bill Traylor whose work is on view in The Jule’s exhibition, as well as the influence of the Lowndes County Freedom Organization. Art historian Darby English of the University of Chicago, senior curator Leslie Umberger of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and assistant curator Es-pranza Humphrey of Poster House in New York City all spoke about the unique history of Lowndes County’s art and activism with Auburn University history professor, Elijah Gaddis. Humphrey spoke about how Southern culture has influenced art and activism in other areas of the United States that may not seem or feel immediately connected. “You have to tap into this dark but informative and, in some ways, celebratory history because it really sheds light on everywhere else and where people are taking inspiration from,” she said.
“The creativity and activism that emerged from Lowndes County had an enormous impact on the history of modern American art,” said Chris Molinski, Janet L. Nolan Director of Curatorial and Educational Affairs. “The Jule is interested in investigating new ways of thinking about art and history, so to see the culmination of this exploration in an exhibition and academic forum is very exciting.” Molinski also said “Sew Their Names: Quilting, Creativity and Activism” will be the subject of in-depth class engagements with university faculty and students, illustrating The Jule’s role as a teaching resource for faculty.
Support for “Sew Their Names: Quilting, Creativity and Activism” provided by the Art Dealers Association of America (AADA) Foundation, The Millie & Andy Gosch “Silver Dollar” Endowed Fund for Excellence and The Betty Coston Lassen ‘54 Endowed Fund for Excellence in Education. The exhibition is on view to students, faculty and the public, with free admission, through July 11, 2026. For more information, please visit jcsm.auburn.edu.
