Folk Art Gallery

Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Untitled (self-portrait), Fayetteville, Alabama, n.d., mud, paint, and handcrafted pigments on plywood, 50 1/4 x 27 in., Collection of the American Folk Art Museum, Gift of the Gitter-Yelen Collection, 2022.9.2. Photo by American Folk Art Museum.

Purvis Young, Untitled, Overtown, Miami, Florida, n.d., oil and wood on plywood, 32 3/4 x 20 1/4 x 11/2 in., Collection of the American Folk Art Museum, Gift of Audrey B. Heckler, 2022.6.17. Photo by American Folk Art Museum.

Mose Tolliver, Untitled, Montgomery, Alabama, n.d., paint on wood, 30 x 21 in., Collection of the American Folk Art Museum, Gift of Audrey B. Heckler, 2022.6.26. Photo by Visko Hatfield.

Mary T. Smith (1904–1995), Untitled, Hazlehurst, Mississippi, 1976, paint on wood panel, 32 x 48 x 1/4 in., American Folk Art Museum, New York, Blanchard-Hill Collection, gift of M. Anne Hill and Edward V. Blanchard, Jr., 1998.10.47. Photographed by Gavin Ashworth.

David Butler (1898–1997), Statue of Liberty, Patterson, Louisiana, c. 1980–1997, paint on metal, 42 1/2 x 21 in., Frame: 53 1/4 x 31 1/2 x 2 1/2 in., American Folk Art Museum, New York, Gift of Robert Bishop, 1985.37.13. Photo by Adam Reich.

Sam Doyle (1906–1985), Dr. Buz, St. Helena Island, South Carolina, c. 1980, paint on sheet metal, 49 1/2 x 26 1/2 in., American Folk Art Museum, New York, Gift of Dorothea and Leo Rabkin, 2002.4.8. Photographed by Gavin Ashworth.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

In the summer of 2026, the LSU Museum of Art premieres the Folk Art Gallery, the museum’s first concentrated gallery featuring work by self-taught and visionary artists. The cornerstone of the showcase is six paintings from the American Folk Art Museum in New York, on a one-year loan made possible by the Partner Loan Network (PLN), an initiative of Art Bridges. Established in 2017 by philanthropist Alice Walton, Art Bridges is a nonprofit arts foundation dedicated to expanding access to American art. The PLN supports museums in lending and borrowing works from one another’s collections, activating objects that might otherwise remain in storage and increasing public access across diverse communities.

In addition to the exhibition, a required PLN component is a robust educational and community engagement plan, ensuring that each loan is accompanied by meaningful interpretive programming that deepens audience connection and broadens the impact of the artworks on view. With support from the Art Bridges Foundation, the LSU Museum of Art is expanding its Art Break programs at the museum and through outreach. What began as targeted outreach to high stress programs at LSU Law and the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine is now expanding to reach the wider student body and surrounding community. In partnership with the Arts in Medicine Program at Baton Rouge General and campus partners, we will offer expanded monthly artmaking programs designed to build connections and create a creative break for people of all ages.

Below is a list of upcoming Art Break programs inspired by works in the Folk Art Gallery at the LSU Museum of Art. Drop in and create art during these relaxed, hands-on sessions—no experience necessary. Designed as a wellness-focused program for teens and adults, each session offers a chance to unwind and connect with art. A docent will be stationed in the Folk Art Gallery to share insights about the works and artists on view. Free to attend thanks to a Learning & Engagement Grant from Art Bridges.

Upcoming Art Break Programs

Art is an act of SPIRIT on Saturday, September 19, 2026 from 1–4 PM
Create a painting inspired by the work of Purvis Young, a self-taught artist who painted with fierce spiritual urgency from whatever materials he could find.
Art is an act of FREEDOM on Saturday, October 24, 2026 from 1–4 PM
Make a sculpture inspired by the work of David Lee Butler, a self-taught artist whose bold cutouts and dynamic forms remind us that freedom is something we can shape with our own hands.
Art is an expression of IDENTITY on Saturday, November 21, 2026 from 1–4 PM
Create a collage inspired by the work of Mose Tolliver, a self-taught artist who developed a bold and joyful visual language entirely his own.
Art is an act of CARE on Saturday, December 12, 2026 from 1–4 PM
Make a textile-inspired artwork guided by the work of Mary T. Smith, a self-taught artist whose practice was an act of fierce independence and tender witness.

Artists represented in the American Folk Art Museum loan (image gallery above) include Jimmy Lee Sudduth (Alabama, 1910–2007), Mose Tolliver (Alabama, 1925–2006), David Butler (Louisiana, 1898–1997), Sam Doyle (South Carolina, 1906–1985), Purvis Young (Florida, 1943–2010), and Mary T. Smith (Mississippi, 1904–1995).

The Folk Art Gallery will be on view June 2026–July 2027

ADDITIONAL LOANS ON VIEW IN THIS GALLERY

Purvis Young, Untitled, undated. Mixed media on wood. Collection of Doug McCraw.

Richard Dial, Moses, 1986. Metal. Collection of Doug McCraw.

Clementine Hunter, Untitled (Picking Cotton), Undated. Oil on canvas. Transfer from LSU Libraries' Special Collections Department.

Dr. Charles Smith, Tribesman with Spear, undated. Mixed media. Transfer from Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art

Dr. Charles Smith, Woman with Lamp and Shell Hair, undated. Mixed media. Transfer from Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art.

Thornton Dial, Lady Running from a Long Neck Tiger, 1990. Watercolor on paper. Gift of Winifred and Kevin P. Reilly.

Also featured in the gallery are several works by artist, activist, and minister Dr. Charles Smith (b. 1940), drawn from a recent transfer of fifteen sculptures from the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art, Inc., in Biloxi, Mississippi. Originally part of Dr. Smith’s complex outdoor visionary environment of hand sculpted and painted concrete, metal, and found-object constructions at his home in Aurora, Illinois, which he coined the African American Heritage Museum, the works were in danger of being destroyed when the artist moved to New Orleans in 2001 to care for his mother. Recognizing the need to preserve Smith’s art, which illustrated the events, places, and people of the Black diaspora, the Kohler Foundation, Inc. stepped forward to save over 500 objects by placing them in nineteen organizations across the United States, including the Hilliard Art Museum in Lafayette. Eventually their holdings were relocated to Biloxi. The LSU Museum of Art is delighted to bring the objects back home to Louisiana, where the artist currently resides.

Rounding out the gallery are artworks on long-term loan from entrepreneur and collector Doug McCraw of Birmingham, Alabama, including a monumental painting by Purvis Young (Florida, 1943–2010) and a metal sculpture by Richard Dial (Alabama, b. 1955), ceramic face jugs from the collection of Becky and Wyatt Collins of New Iberia, paintings by Clementine Hunter (Louisiana, c. 1887–1988) drawn from the Museum’s extensive permanent collection, and a large drawing by Thornton Dial (Alabama, 1928–2016), recently donated by Winifred and Kevin P. Reilly.