Valerie Cassel Oliver and Kevin W. Tucker examine evolving perceptions of art from their region and its promising future
That work is key in getting those collections into museums, both within and beyond the region. Just seeing that increased recognition happening on an academic level, within the museum community and, frankly, within the art market outside of the southeast has been vital. Creating context and integrating work across departments is also crucial. During the High Museum of Art’s 2018 reinstallation, we transformed our galleries to include what we called ‘nexus spaces’, featuring works from as many as four different departments, which brought together civil-rights photography, contemporary sculpture and self-taught art, by artists such as Thornton Dial and Beverly Buchanan, as a means of disrupting old boundaries of classification and to foster dialogue.
- Kevin W. Tucker