Quiet bounces off the walls of the Richardson Family Art Museum as art is taken in. Two exhibits, one connection. The Wofford Arts Department, working alongside both student and professional curators, has produced an exhibition celebrating the American South through art.

“As the Department of Art History, we and the Wofford museum wanted to work with this collection that’s based in Asheville, the collection of Randy Siegel, who is an artist and a collector,” Dr. Gillian Young said.

Young is an assistant professor of art history and worked alongside Wofford museum curator Yumi Efurd to bring in a class of Wofford students to work hands-on with Siegel’s collection last spring.

“I wanted students to be able to work hands-on with art, to see it in person, and then to let that spur their research into the artist that they chose to work on,” Young said.

Siegel’s collection focuses on self taught artists. These are artists who have no formal education in the arts, artists who may never had the intention of having their art displayed in a museum.

“We wanted to find a way of doing justice to that art within our art institution and within our museum here at Wofford,” Young said.

A large portion of these artists are from marginalized communities, something that the arts department wanted to give a space for, without separating marginalized artists from others.

“[We wanted] to try to explore and critically address the connection between the marginalization of self taught artists and structural racism. How historically African American and black artists were excluded from arts education and those opportunities and also access to mainstream art shows,” Young said.

“We didn’t want to make the exhibition about outsiderness, and therefore continue that process of marginalizing these artists,” Young said.

Young worked with Riley Jones, a 2024 graduate who curated this specific exhibit, to create a space in which artists can display their talent without becoming an exhibit themselves.

Alongside this collection, in the upper level of the museum, Wofford has partnered with The Johnson Collection to display work from The Art Students League of New York to show work that depicts the American South.

The Johnson Collection is a private collection of art that aims to illuminate the history and culture of the American South.

“This is our sixth exhibition that we’ve placed with Wofford. We are a private art collection owned by George and Suzu Johnson. George was a Wofford graduate, class of 1965, so there is a long term relationship and collaboration that the Johnson family has with Wofford,” Sarah Tignor, curator of the Johnson Collection’s exhibit said.

“Our mission is to share art of the American South with our region and nationally. So what’s wonderful about the partnership with Wofford is that it is such a beautiful facility for us to custom curate exhibitions that we think are going to serve twofold,”Tignor said.

Beautiful artistic experiences for the community, but also educational experiences for the students who are on campus, who are going through the museum, and can really have an intimate experience and a kind of experiential learning through the gallery.”

Both exhibits focus on the culture within the American South and how we in the modern day can interact with systems that have been in place for generations before.

“[We want students]  to think about these historical exclusions and processes of marginalization that arts institutions have perpetuated,” Young said.

Both exhibits are on display through December, allowing for students and the community at large to interact with the art and what it represents.