Alabama Folk Pottery At The Birmingham Museum Of Art

Birmingham, Ala.

:For curator Joey Brackner, the story of Alabama pottery is the story of Alabama itself, the story of a pottery that reflects the prevailing cultural influences at work in the state of Alabama over the last 200 years. And while Southern pottery is often lumped together under a singular classification, Alabama has separated and identified itself with a celebration of its own unique pottery tradition in the exhibition "Alabama Folk Pottery," now on view at the Birmingham Museum of Art (BMA).

The genesis of the 72-object exhibit is as unique as the pottery on view. It was organized to showcase the collectors who allowed Brackner, the guest curator and director of the Alabama Center for Traditional Culture, generous access to their pots for inclusion in his scholarly book Alabama Folk Pottery. Based on the book, the exhibit is presented largely according to geography. Since little archaeological material about Alabama pots exists, Brackner relied heavily on the collectors and their information for his research. The result is a definitive advance in scholarship.

For the BMA itself, the show is also valued for the sheer aesthetic pleasure the pottery offers, and at the same time, it affords many the opportunity to see so many rare and historic Alabama pots in one setting.

Most of the pots on view are from private collections, with the exception of two pieces from the collection of the BMA, several others on loan from the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and the Gadsden Museum in Gadsden, Ala.

Until 1817, when it became a separate territory, Alabama was part of Mississippi and it achieved statehood in December 1819. Settlement really only began after the Federal Indian Removal of the 1830s coupled with a gold rush in Alabama, although it was relatively sparse compared to that seen in Eastern states. A later immigration after the Civil War blurred many regional differences.

The Appalachian Mountains bisect the state in a southwest-to-northeast direction, accounting for the immigration patterns that had settlers from the northern and mid-Atlantic states entering from the Tennessee River Valley. Settlers from the Carolinas and Georgia entered south of the mountains. Simple geography and its rural character drove the cultural distinctions of the early days.

Jugtowns and pottersvilles sprung up all over the state near requisite sources of clay, water and fuel, usually along watercourses where clay deposits were plentiful. A natural division resulted in five general areas of pottery production, each with its own large "family" of potters. They were the eastern shore of Mobile Bay, east central Alabama, the northeast mountains, the Tuscaloosa area and the northwest counties of Marion and Lamare.