The Reece Museum Exhibition Publications

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Introduction

The Reece Museum is home to a communal collection of artifacts that help us remember and retell stories that are important to our identities as a community. The objects we choose to collect, display, and research act as historical documents that form the foundation of the lore that comprises our living narratives, which are “ever evolving, out of the stories of our most recent ancestors” (Bastet and Houlbrook 2023, 188). The movement of collections from personal stories and belongings into collective and institutional artifacts is something I spend a lot of time thinking about.

I learned to enjoy collecting from my maternal grandfather. I remember staying with my grandparents in South Carolina when I was out of school for the summer, and I always looked forward to the Saturdays when me and my Poppaw would get up before daylight in order to spend the morning going from flea market to flea market, searching through the stalls for buried treasure before it got too hot. He loved antiques and unusual decorative objects, and I enjoy recalling pleasant memories of those longago summers when I glance around my home and see some of the objects he and I collected together.

The experience of sharing in a collection as a way to commune with our recent or distant ancestors feels like the most prominent story being told by this exhibition. What we fill our homes and our galleries with reveals subtle information about our priorities, when it comes to the work of memory keeping. Material culture gives us tangible and concrete places to house our memories, capturing the experiences, thoughts, or even spirits of those Artists Once Known, friends and family, or makers we personally know and respect.

Something that Sammie Nicely knew, and that as a museum we aspire to, is that having a collection is important, but it’s what you do with the collection that really counts. Developing exhibitions, educational content, and research opportunities that deepen our understanding and appreciation of these collections is at the heart of our mission. This work would be impossible without the support of an extensive and dedicated community, and I want to say thank you to every collector who has entrusted us to preserve and share these artifacts as an important part of our collective story.

In gratitude,

Rebecca Proffitt

Start Date

1-22-2025

End Date

7-3-2025

Table of Contents

  • 1: Introduction
  • 3: Curatorial Statement: Dr. Althia Fain Ali
  • 4: On Loan From Irena Canty & Tunde Famous
  • 7: The Bays Mountain Collection
  • 24: From Africa to Appalachia Foundation
  • 30: Reece Museum Collection
  • 32: The Sammie L. Nicely Collection
  • 47: Digitization & Accessibility
  • 49: Citations
  • 50: Acknowledgments

Exhibition

Dr. Althia Fain Ali (Research & Curation); Spenser Brenner (Design); Reece Staff (Installation)

Publication Contribution

Rebecca Proffitt (Writing, Research & Development); Spenser Brenner (Layout & Design)

Artifacts

Savannah Bennett (Collections Development & Documentation); Ashley Gregg (Oral History Collection & Documentation)

Reece Museum Staff

Rebecca Proffitt (Director); Spenser Brenner (Exhibition Coordinator); Savannah Bennett (Collections Manager); Ashley Gregg (Education Curator)

From Africa to Appalachia: The Tie That Binds

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