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Under the Dome, McKissick Museum Newsletter McKissick Museum

8-1993

Under the Dome - August 1993 Under the Dome - August 1993

McKissick Museum--University of South Carolina

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I~I ONDER THE DOME

MCKISSICK MUSEUM - THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA

VOLUME 3 AUGUST 1993 ISSUE 3

Jitterbugging in a juke joint, Memphis, TN, 1939. Photographer. Marion Post Wolcott.

Jubilation! African American Celebrations in the Southeast September 12, 1993 - May 1, 1994

MCKISSICK MUSEUM - THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA

EXHIBITIONS

Above: Lunette, 1892, Louis H. Sullivan, Albert Sullivan residence.

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Louis Sullivan: Unison with Nature Sept. 5-0ct. 24, 1993

In the late nineteenth century, the reality of daily life for many Americans shifted from the farm to the factory, and the nature of work was altered by the industrial revolution and the mass production of consumer goods at low cost. However, poor working conditions and low job satisfaction as well as a flood of poorly-designed-and­made goods spurred many reformers to advocate a return to hand-made crafts. This movement influenced everything from pots and pans to architecture.

The work of the Chicago architect Louis Sullivan is a perfect example of the creative collision between modem business needs and individual aesthetics. Sullivan, credited with inventing the modern American skyscraper, truly believed that "form follows function." His taIl office towers of the 1880s and 1890s were adorned with finely crafted and intricate decorative designs. "The strange thing," says David Huntley, director of the Southern Illinois University Museum, "is that Sullivan was more of a designer than an architect, and this is what makes him outstanding. In many respects he was a poet in design. He looked at nature and translated what he found into exciting designs."

Gallery Talk

One of the most influential American architects, Sullivan designed buildings for dozens of major cities. His flamboyant lifestyle, however, prematurely destroyed his career, as well as his life: he died in 1924, unrecognized for his contributions to modem architecture.

From Sept. 5 through Oct. 24,41 pieces of Sullivan's work from the extensive collections at Southern Illinois will be on view at McKissick. "We thought that this exhibition would complement the research we are doing on the craft revival movement in the South," said Catherine Home, McKissick's director for public services and development. "While much of what the Museum is working on involves the revival of traditional arts and crafts and focuses more on community organizations through­out the Southeast, Sullivan stands as an urban contrast, but still a part of that broad movement to make the created environment more beautiful and reflective of individual creativity." Included in the exhibition is a Sullivan panel donated by Dr. R. Mandell in the late 1960s to McKissick's permanent collection.

On October 12 at 6:00 p.m. in the McKissick Museum First Floor Auditorium there will be an informal presentation on Louis Sullivan and his place within the Arts and Craft Movement.

MCKISSICK MUSEUM - THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA

Recent Drawings: Deanna Leamon Nov. 7-Jan~ 9, 1994

This fall, visitors to McKissick will have the opportunity to view a new series of charcoal drawings by Deanna Leamon, assistant professor of life drawing at USC. The exhibition will conclude a year-long project for the artist and mark the beginning of a regional tour of these works. Leamon was awarded a Research and Productive Scholarship to produce the exhibition.

For Leamon, the fire at the Hamlet plant is indicative of many universal inequities in our society-racial, class, gender and educational inequities. "This one incident represents larger concerns facing us as a nation," she says. "It is about class issues, the poor, the uneducated, and single mothers on minimum wage struggling to support families. Because most of the victims were black, female, poor, and uneducated, they were considered by the plant owners to be lower class, and therefore somehow expendable."

The 20 to 25 life-size figure drawings are the artist's response to a fire in a poultry processing plant in Hamlet, NC, on Sept. 3, 1991. The tragedy left 25 dead and 56 injured, and more than 30 children or­phaned. A native of St. Louis, Leamon was inspired by the incident to

Still, Leamon points out the importance of seeing the positive side of the worker's resilience, fortitude and character. Says EXHIBITIONS

make a broad statement about human suffering in general, rather than document the actual event. "The images are drawn from my imagination," says Leamon. "I've read countless news accounts, visited the plant, and talked to survivors and the woman who has been counseling them and their families." In Leamon's work, their story is told through stark, expres­sive figures drawn in an undefined space-figures which transcend time and place to become symbols of human struggle and triumph. These are not portraits of specific people, but representa­tions of thoughts and feelings.

Leamon, " ... the Hamlet images will be more than an indictment of corporate injustice and neglect. They will also remind us of the

strength of the human spirit in the face of adversity, and the hope and

optimism that often emerge from tragic events."

Prior to joining the University's art department in 1991, Leamon taught at the University of Wisconsin, Madi­son; the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design; and Washington

University in St. Louis.

Above: Untitled, Deanna Leamon.

Left: Untitled, Deanna Leamon.

Far Left: Untitled, Deanna Leamon.

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MCKISSICK MUSEUM - THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA

MEMBERSHIP

Charleston November 9

Come with us for a special day in Charleston. We will begin at Charleston's Welcome Center, which was a railway station in 1854. We will then participate in an enchanting walking tour with a Charles­ton guide that will feature several private gardens and tea in a private home. Lunch will be served in one of Charleston's quaint restaurants; afterward, we will tour the historic Edmondston-Alston House which was built by Scottish merchant Charles Edmondston in 1828. Charles Alston remodeled it in 1838 into the exceedingly handsome Greek Revival mansion with three-story piazzas overlooking the Cooper River that we see today. The house has remained in the Alston family; descendants still reside on the mansion's third floor. The fee for this delightful day, which includes transportation, lunch and guided tours is $38. The deadline for reservations is Oct. 5.

Callaway Gardens and Warm Springs, GA November 30 - December 1

"Light up your heart" with a holiday extravaganza at Callaway Gardens and the Fantasy of Lights. Upon arrival in the afternoon, we will receive a guided tour of the garden, which is a man-made landscape in a unique natural setting. After checking

into the Callaway Garden Inn, we will have a buffet dinner in the Plantation Room, followed by a drive after dark to view the Fantasy in Lights displayed throughout the gardens. The drive-through includes such highlights as "Glittering Snowflake Valley," "Sugarplum Fairyland," "Magical Christmas Garden," and "The Nativity," with its huge illuminated angels. We will also make a stop at the Sibley Horticultural Center where huge holiday bouquets are filled with poinsettias, paperwhites, and other flowers of the season. The drive will conclude with a stop at the Callaway Festival Area in the beach dome, where there will be an array of holiday crafts for viewing and gift giving, delicious edibles, and entertainment.

After a buffet breakfast and check-out the next morning, we will drive to Warm Springs, GA, and a tour of the Little White House, vacation home of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the place where he died. The house exhibits many personal items, gifts to President Roosevelt from individuals, states, and foreign countries, and personal and official correspondence.

The fee for this overnight trip which includes transportation, guided garden tour, accommodations, buffet dinner, Fantasy in Lights tour, buffet breakfast, baggage handling, gratuities, and tour of the Little White House is $160, double occupancy and $170, single occupancy. The deadline for reservations is Oct. 28.

MCKISSICK MUSEUM CHARTER MEMBERS

We would like to thank the following charter members for their continued commitment to and support of McKissick Museum.

Ms. Nancy P. Abernathy Dr. and Mrs. Stephen H. Ackerman Ms. Judith W. Alexander Mr. O. Holt Allen Mr. Carroll L. Allen Dr. J. Richard Allison, Jr. Mr. Bob Anderson Col. and Mrs. Harvey H. Anderson Ms. Mildred Andrews Mr. and Mrs. James R. D. Anderson Ms. Frances L. Ashburn Dr. and Mrs. Perry J. Ashley Ms. Maria A. Ballard J. Bardin Ms. Ida Belle Barker Mr. F. Edward Barnwell Dr. Mary L. Beach John and Carol Benfield Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Blount, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Clyde P. Bouknight Mr. and Mrs. E. C. McGregor Boyle Mr. and Mrs. A. McKay Brabham Ms. Eloise A. Bradham Ms. Katherine Hay Bradley Ms. Dorothy Bratton Mr. and Mrs. Walter J. Bristow, Jr. Mrs. Marion R. Brock Ms. Ethel S. Brody Ms. Janet B. Brooker Mr. Ashley Brown Mr. and Mrs. H. Arthur Brown, Jr. Mrs. Josephine Z. Brown Mr. and Mrs. Walter J. Brown Dr. Lauren E. Brubaker, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. L. V. Bruno

4

Podie and Hal Brunton Dr. and Mrs. W. M. Bryan, Jr. Melissa V. BUSh, Ph.D. Ms. Edith F. Butler Mr. Keen Butterworth Mr. and Mrs. H. F. Byrne Ms. Mary Ann Byrnes Mrs. Sarah A. Cahill Mrs. W. H. Callcott Mr. Edward O. Cannon Mr. and Mrs. Edward B. Cantey Mrs. J. Willis Cantey Mr. James W. Cantey, Jr. Mr. W. W. Carothers Capt. and Mrs. Ernest Castle Mrs. F. P. Caughman, Jr. Mr. George D. Caughman Mr. and Mrs. David R. Chesnutt Mr. Bobby S. Clark Dr. and Mrs. David Claybrook Mr. Elbin L. Cleveland Ms. Donna G. Collins Ms. Lois W. Compton Dr. C. W. Coolidge Ms. Nancy Ashmore Cooper Ms. Carol Copeland Ms. Sandra R. Corbitt Col. and Mrs. Richard R. Coulter Mr. and Mrs. Stephen M. Cunningham Ms. Elise Currell Mr. and Mrs. B. A. Daetwyler Mrs. Frances G. Daniel Ms. Mary Dannerbeck Ms. Dianne R. Dantzler Mr. and Mrs. Marion Dantzler Mr. and Mrs. C. Darden Mr. and Mrs. Wm. S. Davies, Jr. Mr. Edwin H. Davis Mrs. Willie C. Davis

Mrs. C. B. Dawsey Ms. Kathryn Denny Ms. Anne Denny Lorraine and Michael Dewey Mrs. Caroline M. Dial Ms. Gail W. Dickson Mrs. Mattie F. Dixon Mrs. Eleta M. Donelan Ms. Babette Downing Mr. Gerald Drucker Mrs. Bettye W. Dudley Ms. Ann G. Duncan Ms. Anna S. Durham Mrs. Frank Durham Dr. and Mrs. James Durig Ms. Nelle H. Dyar Mr. E. S. Eargle Mr. Walter B. Edgar Mrs. Jere Eggleston Mr. and Mrs. B. G. Ehrhardt Ms. Lois Eleazer Mr. and Mrs. David G. Ellison Prof. Robert L. Felix Dr. Dianne S. Fergusson Mr. John R. Ferren Jessanne R. Fitzgerel Mr. and Mrs. Charlie C. Foster Mr. and Mrs. Robert E. L. Freeman Ms. Mary Arnold Garvin Dana and Jim Gilchrist Mrs. Terrell L. Glenn Mr. John W. Goodwin Ms. Denby Gorman Dr. Joan S. Gottlieb Ms. Elaine Graff Ms. Florieda Grant Mr. Jack S. Graybill Ms. Ruth B. Greenberg Ms. Sarah M. Greene Mr. and Mrs. William W. Griffin

Robert A. Grookett Mrs. Gustaf M. Gudmundson Mrs. C. D. Guess Mr. Allen Guignard Mr. and Mrs. John Haller Mr. John F. Hamilton Mr. and Mrs. Spann Hammond Mr. John M. Harden III Ms. Sarah L. Harman Dr. and Mrs. George C. Hart Ms. Margaret B. Harvin Anna B. Hathaway Mr. Cantey Heath, Jr. Mrs. Helen R. Hempley Dr. James A. Hightower Mr. Frank Hill Ms. Sharman Hill Ms. Helen S. Hindersman Mr. R. Scot Hockman Ms. Carolyn M. Holderman Ms. Robin Holloway Ms. Lucille O. Holmes C. G. Hopper, Jr., M.D. Dr. and Mrs. Paul A. Home, Jr. Mr. Ben F. Hornsby, Jr. Ms. Mary W. Howe Mr. and Mrs. William Hubbard Dr. Allen Huffman Dr. and Mrs. J. O'Neal Humphries Dwight and Betty Huneycutt Ms. Selina Hunt Ms. Ann K. Hutto Jacqueline E. Ihrig, M.D. Nell B. and Harold B. Jayroe Miss Dorothy C. Johnson Mr. Mayer L. Johnson Mr. and Mrs. W. Felton Jones Mr. Ralph S. Kennedy Mrs. George S. King, Sr. Mr. John E. King

MCKISSICK MUSEUM - THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA

Museum Receives Grant McKissick Museum is one of a select

group across the country to receive a MAP III grant from the Institute of Museum Services and the American Association of Museums. MAP III, which stands for Museum Assessment Program: Public Dimension Assessment, is a program in which museums evaluate their relationship with and communication to the public. This

grant is important because it comes at a time when museums everywhere are re-evaluat­ing their service to society. The MAP III project will enable the Museum to critically evaluate its strengths and weaknesses. Over the next two years, the Museum staff will conduct internal and external assessments and utilize consultants to plan for new directions.

Self-Study Project Underway Have you ever tried to get six adults to

coordinate their schedules in order to make multi-day trips or have a three-day meeting? Then you know it's challenging! In order to maximize the University's resources in humanities programming, McKissick Museum has embarked on an ambitious year-long self-study project.

Funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities has allowed Museum staff members Catherine Wilson Home, director of development and public services, Dr. Douglas DeNatale, director of the folklife and oral history program, and Deanna Kerrigan, curator of educational services, to work with the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology staff on this project. Key Institute staff members involved are Dr. Albert Goodyear, associate director for research, and archaeologists Dr. Chester DePratter and Thomas Charles.

During this project, the self-study team will make three multi-day trips to other museums, hold a planning meeting with consultants, and develop a long-term plan for humanities exhibitions. This past summer, we made our first trip and held a

three-day consultants' meeting. The project team, along with McKissick director Lynn Robertson and Institute director Dr. Bruce Rippeteau, traveled to the Columbus Museum in Columbus, GA, the Museum of DEVELOPMENT Florida History in Tallahassee, and the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville. There we viewed permanent exhibitions and met with staff members. The trip afforded the project staff a glimpse at what it will be like to work together on a major exhibition. Fortunately, it looks like we all get along well!

Even more interesting than our first trip was the consultants' meeting in late June. Dr. Charles Joyner of Coastal Carolina University, Dr. Jerald Milanich of the Florida Museum of Natural History, Dr. John Michael Vlach of George Washington University, and Martha Zierden of the Charleston Museum learned about research activities and saw collections as we discussed areas of collaboration for future exhibitions.

This lengthy meeting and our future trips to Virginia and to Washington, D.C., will help the Museum establish a course of action for future exhibitions and programs.

MCKISSICK MUSEUM CHARTER MEMBERS

John and Bernice Kirby Mrs. Lilyan R. Klein Joan and Joy Kyzer Luther and Emily Lee Mr. and Mrs. T. C. R. Legare, Jr. Mr. Charles H. Lesser Mr. C. Murray Lide, Jr. Mrs. Judith L. Lindau Mr. Guy F. Lipscomb Mr. and Mrs. Joe Lipton Mrs. George Lott, Jr. Arney and Dan Love Ms. Mary Louise Lyles Mrs. Neill W. Macaulay Dr. Charles R. Mack Mary and Steve Mann Mr. and Mrs. Andrew B. Marion Ms. Julia D. Markley Mr. Emory F. Markwood, III Ms. Lisa A. Maseng Mr. and Mrs. Leif E. Maseng Thomasine G. Mason Ms. Chris H. Maw Ms. Ann S. McAden Mr. W. S. McAninch Ms. Katherine O. McCoy Mr. George T. McCutchen, Jr. Mrs. Ethelind Mcintosh Mr. and Mrs. George A. Mcintosh Mrs. J. W. Mclaurin Ms. Frances K. B. Means

Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Medich Ms. Ellen M. Merrill Ms. Mattie R. Miles Mrs. W. K. Miller Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Minson Mr. and Mrs. Howard C. Monteith Dr. and Mrs. Nicholas K. Moore Ms. Jane C. Moorefield Ms. Mary L. Morgan Ms. Ann B. Morris Dr. James A. Morris Philip Mullen Mr. Duane P. Myers Ms. Ginny Newell Mr. Edward F. Nolan Annetta and Richard Nuttall Dr. Robert D. Ochs Ms. Virginia A. Odom Dr. D. Louise Odor Mrs. F. D. Owen, Jr. Dr. William H. Patterson Mr. Don M. Paul Mr. Frank Peake Mr. and Mrs. Roy Pearce Ms. Carol Pittman Mr. and Mrs. Olin S. Pugh Ms. Eleanor C. Pulliam Thomas M. Quin Mr. Alfred Rawlinson Dr. C. E. Reeder Dr. and Mrs. David H. Rembert, Jr.

Delmar L. Roberts Ms. Judith K. Roberts Ms. Pamela D. Robinson Mr. George C. Rogers Mr. Eddie P. Roland, Jr. Mr. Randolph P. Romaine Nancy R. Ruff Mr. William E. Russ Mr. and Mrs. Boyd Saunders Ms. Mary Belle Scanlon Mrs. H. P. Schaefer Prof. O. F. Schuette Tony and Marie Shank Cot and Mrs. J. M. Shaw Ms. Anne B. Sims Ms. Jean Z. Slider Prof. and Mrs. John L. Safko Mrs. Edith V. Samartino Mr. William C. Schmidt, Jr. Dr. and Mrs. Richard C. Slocum Mr. Robert E. Slough Ms. Louise S. Smith Ms. Myra L. Smith Mr. and Mrs. Curtis P. Smoak, Jr. Dr. and Mrs. John G. Sproat Ms. Cynthia Steele Mr. and Mrs. Weston A. Stevens, Jr. Dr. Allen Stokes Dr. Sara L. Strachan Mr. Howard B. Stravitz Dr. and Mrs. W. J. Strohecker

Mr. John J. Stucker Ms. Barbara Tartaglia Mr. and Mrs. Peyton C. Teague Dr. and Mrs. Truman H. Teed Ms. Ada B. Thomas Ms. LaVanda Thompson Mr. and Mrs. G. Cameron Todd Ms. Sarah J. Trice Ms. Vera Trieb Drs. F. J. and W. B. Vernberg Ms. Ann Vickery Ms. Sandra T. Watts Mr. Charles A. Weagly, Jr. Mr. Charles B. Weasmer Mrs. Herbert Weisberg Rev. and Mrs. Charles S. Wessinger Mrs. Arthur M. Williams Mr. and Mrs. Jesse P. Williams Mr. and Mrs. H. E. Wilson, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. John G. Wilson, Jr. John and Carol Winberry Dr. and Mrs. Charles H. Witten Ms. Elsie B. Wolff Mrs. Gettis D. Wood, Jr. Mr. Edmund Yaghjian Ms. Moong Y. Yeh Ms. Del H. Yonce Ms. Amaryllis D. Zajkowski

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MCKISSICK MUSEUM - THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA

FEATURE

Top: Worshippers at the Mount AME Zion camp meeting, Lancaster, SC. Photographer: Jorge Otero, McKissick Museum, USC.

Above: Children in Penn Center Heritage Festival Parade, 1987. Photographer: Roger Manley, McKissick Museum, USC.

Right: Members of the Prince Hall Lodge, Columbia, SC. Courtesy Anna Mae Dickson.

Museum Opens African American Celebrations Exhibit

Jubilation! African American Celebra­tions in the Southeast opens to the public

on Sept. 12 at the University of South Carolina's McKissick Mu­seum in Columbia. The product of almost five years of intensive research and fieldwork, the exIribitex~es the role of celebra­tion in shaping the African American family, commu­

nity, and culture. "Jubilation! is an exhibition which, in my view, demonstrates the ways in which celebrations bind together families, congrega­tions, schools, lodges, and even entire towns," says exIribit curator Lesley Wil­liams. Williams describes the exIribit as primarily using items from personal collections to highlight some of the ways in which African Americans come together to preserve their history, celebrate individual and

collective achievements, and affirm common values.

"This exIribition," says Dr. Douglas DeNatale, McKissick's director of folklife and oral history program, "is about the role of celebration for one group of people in the American South­east. African Americans have constructed their group life in this region over a three­century period of enslavement and freedom, oppression and struggle, frustration and achievement. In many ways, this exIribition celebrates the very fact of celebration and the indomitable character of the human spirit."

The material in the exIribition's three sections ex~es the ways in which celebration is woven into the fabric of

MCKISSICK MUSEUM - THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA

every-day lives. "Rites of Passage" looks at the celebrations that mark growth and change in the life of an individual-baptism, coming of age, marriage and funerary practices. "Cel­ebrations of Community Identity" explores church gatherings such as homecomings which bring the congre­gation together for spiritual cleansing and socializing, and also features the fraternal lodge "turnout" and other parades celebrating Emancipation or Decoration Day. "The Time Between" examines the other types of gatherings that occur after work hours, such as yearly celebrations, family visits to the beach, and countless other occasions where African Americans celebrate being together.

The educational components of the project include a school curriculum guide with special workshops designed to help teachers incorporate the African American heritage into their classroom instruction; a workshop on document­ing family history and preserving family photographs and history; a film series; and a symposium on celebrations in South Carolina.

The entire celebration project has received substantial support from the National Endowment for the Humani­ties in the form of an implementation grant and corporate sponsorships from The Hitachi Foundation and NationsBank.

After closing at McKissick on May 1, 1994, Jubilation! goes on a three-year national tour to such institutions as the Museum of African American History in Detroit; the Museum of Arts and Sci­ences in Macon, GA; the National Afro­American Museum and Cultural Center in Wilberforce, OH; the Virginia Histori­cal Society in Richmond; the Museum of Florida History in Tallahassee; and the California Afro American Museum in Los Angeles.

For specific dates of the Jubilation! African American Celebrations in the Southeast traveling schedule or informa­tion on the public programs being held at McKissick Museum, call (803) 777-7251 (Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.).

Film and the African American Experience film & lecture series

All films will be held in McKissick's auditorium at 6:00 p.m., and are free of charge. For a complete list of films and speakers, contact the Museum or stop by and pick up one of our film series flyers.

Sept. 14 African American Church Sept. 19 Daughters of the Dust Sept. 28 Music and the African American Family Oct.S The Changing Landscape of the Lowcountry

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FEATURE

Above: National Black Arts Festival, Atlanta, GA,1992. Photographer: Lesley Williams, McKissick Museum, USC.

Left: Mann­Simon Jubilee, Columbia, SC, 1992. Photogra­pher: Lesley Williams, McKissick Museum, USC.

MCKISSICK MUSEUM - THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLI!\;A

EDUCATIONAL

SERVICES

8

Celebrate our collective history this fall at McKissick Muse Our fall programs, which focus on cultural and community celebrations, will have you gttlring • ' next year's family reunion and digging out those old letters and photographs. For more infomultio ,r these programs, contact Educational Services at 777-7251. (See this issue's feature section ' r It programs connected with the Jubilation! exhibition.)

Cultural Awareness Club In conjunction with Jubilation! African

American Celebrations in the Southeast, McKissick Museum will sponsor a Cultural Awareness Club for children in grades three through six focusing on understanding the many cultures within Columbia. Club meetings will be held one Saturday each month, and will include field trips, guest speakers, and fun hands-on activities. Designed to encourage sensitivity toward other cultures as well as knowledge about participants' family histories, the Club is the first of its kind to be offered at McKissick. To accommodate busy schedules, the Cultural Awareness Club will be offered in fall and spring sessions. A fee of $35 per session will cover all travel and material expenses. For more information, contact the Museum at 777-7251.

Session I Sept. 11

Getting to Know Me! Family Histories and Traditions (African American celebrations)

Oct. 16 Storytelling and Folklore in Your Community (Native American traditions)

Nov. 6 Coming to Carolina (Vietnamese traditions)

Dec. 11 Winter Holidays in South Carolina

Session II Jan. 15

Oral Histories and Family Trees (German traditions)

Feb. 12 What's in a Name? (East Indian traditions)

March 12 Religion and Culture (Jewish traditions)

April 9 Spring Celebrations in South Carolina

Jubilation in the Classroom Oct. 2, 10:00 a.m.-l:00 p.m.

In conjunction with Jubilation! African American Celebrations in the Southeast, McKissick will host a workshop on incorpo­rating the study of community and family celebrations into the social studies curricu­lum for South Carolina educators. Drawing upon research completed for this exhibit, the workshop will utilize prepared curriculum materials to develop exciting class projects

and fit new informati ~ into the pre-existing curriculum. Participants will receive a bound curriculum notebook a poster exhibit for their school, and other classroom materi­als. A fee of $20 for Museum members and 25 for non-members covers all materials.

Witches, goblins and ghouls join in the family fun at McKissick's Haunted Horseshoe.

Haunted Horseshoe and Museum of Horrors Oct. 29-30, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.

Celebrate Halloween safely at McKissick Museum! Bring the family for spooky ghost stories on the Horse­shoe and a tour of our Museum of Horrors in the auditorium. Finish the evening with punch and cookies in the Museum lobby. Admission is $2 per person or $5 per family. Discounts are available for groups of more than 15.

Documenting and Preserving Your Family History Nov. 6, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.

Join McKissick staff, preservation professionals, and genealogists for a day of interactive workshops on documenting and preserving your family history. Participants willieam how to conduct oral histories of family members, preserve photographs and other paper documents, conduct research genealogies, and plan family reunions. Come and discover great 'how-to's" for preserving your family history! A fee of $25 for Museum members and $35 for non­members includes archival storage materi­als, resources, and lunch. Call the Museum to receive one of our symposium brochures.

MCKISSICK MUSEUM - THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA

jane's Journeys Jane Prysbyzs was introduced to the readers

in the last issue of "Under the Dome" as the fteldworkerlresearcher for the Museum's Craft Revival Project. Because so many of the develop­mental stages of our major exhibitions go unnoticed, we thought you would enjoy follow­ing Jane throughout the research phase.

To counter the perception of most McKissick staff that I spend the majority of my time on the road either hunkering down with HBO in posh hotel rooms, scarfing down bonbons, or working on my tan, the Museum's magazine staff has decided that it would a good idea for me to write an on­going column about my exploits for Under The Dome. Having a keen interest in keeping my job, I am most happy to oblige. But I confess, it's actually wonderful to have an opportunity to share with you some of my finds.

In Auburn University's Special Collec­tions, I discovered not only a remarkably complete and thoroughly indexed collection of agricultural extension materials (1910-1974), but an as-yet unpublished, 450-page autobiography by Mary Harper, a former home demonstration agent for the state of Alabama back in the 1930s. From reports of the clothing and handicraft specialist, I learned that, in 1927, a group of women and girls in Clay County formed a pine-needle basketmaking business on a for-profit basis. They marketed their goods at the Birming­ham farmers' market, through their own retail shop in Ashland, and with the help of "two salesladies on the road selling baskets through leading department stores of big cities in the North and East." Sales ex­ceeded $13,000 their first year of operation. Not bad, huh?

Interestingly enough, craft figured very differently in the life and work of Harper, an Alabama native born poor but smart and ambitious enough to manage to study home economics at the University of Chicago, return home, have a career as a home demonstration agent, and eventually achieve her goal of purchasing a home for her family. (She never married, apparently choosing instead to take on the role of the "provider" for her extended family.) She recalls leaming how to make inexpensive picture frames, bookends, hanging baskets, artistic bowls, and "vases and boxes from useless articles," mostly for the sake of carrying out her duties as a demonstration agent. Not until retirement does handicraft seem to playa meaningful role in her life, at which point she becomes an avid quilter. Hence, her autobiography provides a detailed image of the changing role of craft

in the life of one Alabama woman, which in tum offers a fascinating and important counterpoint to craft information which may be gleaned from more formal reports.

Of course, not all of my "finds" are on paper. In Fairhope, AL, the site of a uto­pian, single-tax colony founded in the late nineteenth century, I had the privilege of spending an afternoon with Dot Cain, the step-daughter-in-Iaw of Marrietta Johnson, a pioneer in child-centered education in the first half of the century who fully integrated arts and crafts into the curriculum of the experimental school Cain attended. Imagine every other class throughout your grammar and high school education consisting of arts and crafts, and you will have some idea of how the curriculum at the Marrietta Johnson School for Organic Education was orga­nized. Cain was heading up the restoration of the former schoolhouse as a museum, and was kind enough to take me home to see the bricks she hand-beveled for a wall in the living room; to sit upon the furniture her husband had made as a teacher at the school; and to eat the organically-grown strawberries she no longer has the time or energy to grow for herself (she is in her early eighties and works as head archivist as well as the chief mover and shaker at the recently-opened museum), but which she picks at a locally-run cooperative farm.

In southern Louisiana, it was French­speaking, warm-hearted Gladys Clark, a highly skilled weaver of rag rugs and traditional Acadian textiles, who invited me to come to her home late one afternoon and let me stay long past sundown. She shared old clippings of when, as a young woman in the 1930s, she used to travel with her parents to fairs to do craft demonstration under the auspices of the" Acadian Handi­crafts Project" sponsored by the General Education Program at Louisiana State University. While she kept apologizing for her bad English and I kept joking about my bad French, somehow much was shared beyond yellowed newspaper clippings and old photos, not to mention the banana and biscuit Clark so generously offered me when my stomach decided it disagreed with my tastebuds about the Creole cuisine I'd relished earlier that day.

I could go on and on about how exhila­rating and humbling it has been to learn, for example, how many collections of settle­ment school materials Berea College has assembled on microfilm in its archive (upwards of eight). But if I did, what would I write for the next issue of Under the Dome?

CRAFT REVIVAL

PROJECT

MCKISSICK MUSEUM - THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA

FOLKLIFE

Top: Examples of Jugtown pottery.

Above: Charlie Moore turning at Jugtown.

Right: Drink Small performs at the 1991 State Fair.

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Museum Purchases Significant Pieces of Jugtown Pottery

The Jugtown Pottery in Moore County, NC, which will be the subject of an upcoming exhibi­tion at McKissick Museum, was founded in 1917 by Jacques and Julianna Busbee. The Busbees, he a portrait painter and she a photographer, started the Pottery as

an attempt to synthesize local, traditional pottery forms with oriental ceramic design. They negotiated, not always easily, with local potters until they were able to retain the services of young Ben Owen, who proved receptive to their stylistic vision. To market their wares, Julianna Busbee opened a tearoom in New York City, where visitors saw a carefully presented view of traditional craft in the South.

Over the years, the Busbees' Jugtown proved a great success as an artistic accom­plishment, far surpassing the couple's original artistic endeavors in their respective fields. Their success was fueled in no small way by their abilities as self-promoters and tendency to mythologize their own history. Today, Jugtown is widely recognized as an important offshoot of the Arts and Crafts Movement in America, and its pottery is highly prized by collectors. After Julianna Busbee's death in 1962, the Pottery was revived by the Country Roads Foundation and remains active today under Vernon and Pam Owens, who have collaborated with McKissick in the preparation of the May 1994 exhibit.

Recently, McKissick acquired eight pieces of Jugtown pottery in an auction by

the Country Roads Foundation. These pieces were in the personal collections of Jacques and Julianna Busbee and of the Country Roads Foundation. The first is a dome-lidded, earthenware bean pot with a clear lead glaze that dates from the 193Os. The vessel's shape is distinctive to Jugtown, and may be an interpretation by the Busbees of Moravian pottery. The second is a clear lead glaze earthenware pie plate from the 1930s with a crude slip decoration depicting a chicken. This piece, another Jugtown trademark, has mythic connections to the Jugtown story, for it was reputedly a plain earthenware pie plate found at a county fair that inspired the Busbees to establish their Pottery. The next set of four pieces probably dates from the 1940s or early 1950s, when Jugtown was in its decline. It includes a large teapot, a double-handled jar, a casse­role dish, and an ash tray.

Finally, the Museum purchased two small bowls from the Country Roads era which are significant because they come from a period of experimentation when Country Roads, under the direction of Nancy Sweezy, was attempting to develop new glazes that could be substituted for the well-loved but toxic lead glazes employed by the Busbees. One of these bowls is an unusual experiment with an alkaline glaze. Traditionally, the use of the alkaline glaze spread from South Carolina to western North Carolina, but never to the Jugtown area. Nor did Country Roads pursue the alkaline glaze, though it has returned to Jugtown in recent years in some pieces made by Owens.

McKissick is delighted with these additions to its collections of traditional and Arts and Craft Movement ceramics.

McKissick to Showcase Traditional Musicians at South Carolina State Fair

For the past two years, McKissick has enjoyed a special partnership with the South Carolina State Fair that has allowed us to present traditional musicians on the grand­stand stage. Recently, exciting regional musicians including the Sounds of the South, the Briarhoppers, the Hired Hands, Drink Small, the Jarvis Brothers, Joe and Odell Thompson, John Dee Holeman, and Roger Bellow and the Drifting Troubadours have opened for headline acts.

This year, McKissick will again present a series of musicians from South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia, who will open for such performers as the Oak Ridge Boys, Tanya Tucker, Gladys Knight, and Confed­erate Railroad.

McKissick's program will begin each evening at 6:00 p.m. Please join us at the State Fair this year for some wonderful music from the heart of the South.

MCKISSICK MUSEUM - THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA

September

5-0ct.24

6

12-May 1, 1994

11 9:00 a.m. - noon

14 6:00p.m.

19 3:00p.m.

21 6:00p.m.

26 2:00p.m.

28 6:00p.m.

October

2

5 6:00p.m.

12 6:00p.m.

16

29-30 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.

November

5-Jan. 9, 1994

6 9:00 a.m. - noon

6 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

25-28

December

11 9:00 a.m.-noon

24-Jan. 1, 1994

Louis Sullivan: Unison with Nature

Museum closed for Labor Day holiday

Jubilation! African American Celebrations in the Southeast

Cultural Awareness Club

Jubilation! film/lecture series The African American Church

Jubilation! film Daughters of the Dust

Jubilation! Gallery Talk

Religious Artifacts of Santa Helena lecture

Jubilation! film/lecture series Music and the African American Family

Jubilation! in the Classroom TeacherVVorkshop

Jubilation! film/lecture series The Changing Landscape of the Lowcountry

Louis Sullivan Gallery Talk

Cultural Awareness Club

Haunted Horseshoe and Museum of Horrors

Deanna Leamon: Recent Drawings

Cultural Awareness Club

Documenting Your Heritage Symposium

Museum closed for Thanksgiving holidays

Cultural Awareness Club

Museum closed for Christmas holidays

CALENDAR

11

MCKISSICK MUSEUM - THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA

Address: McKissick Museum, The University of

South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208

Telephone: (803) 777-7251 - (all offices); recorded

general information and answering machine during non-public hours.

FAX: (803777-2829)

Admission: Free. Public entrance facing Sumter

Street via the historic Horseshoe; access for disabled visitors at the Museum's side entrance via the little Horseshoe at the intersection of Pendleton & Bull Streets.

GENERAL

INFORMATION Hours: Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.;

Saturday and Sunday, 1:00-5:00 p.m. Closed all major holidays.

Parking: The museum is within walking distance

of metered street parking. Metered parking is also available in the lower level of the Pendleton Street Garage located at the comer of Pendleton and Pickens Streets.

McKISSICK MUSEUM THE UNIVERSITY' OF SOUTH CAROLINA COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA 29208

Talks and Tours: Docent-conducted exhibition tours are

available. To schedule a tour, please call Educational Services at least two weeks in advance. Gallery talks and lectures are free.

Members Program: Membership revenues and special fund­

raising activities provide essential support for Museum programs. Members receive advance announcements about exhibitions, programs, travel opportunities, and special events, as well as discounts on publications. For more information, please contact the Membership Coordinator.

Volunteers: The Educational Services department

coordinates docent training and programs. Volunteers are needed for education and other support activities. Please direct inquires to the Docent Coordinator.

Contributions: Gifts or bequests to the Museum,

whether works of art or money, are essential to the development of programs and collections. Contributions are tax deductible within IRS guidelines.

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Permit #766 Columbia, SC