Photo of the Day: November 16, 2024

Each day, we will bring you a photo of the day, showcasing the sights of Williamson County (and beyond). Whether it’s a photo of a local landmark, a park, a photo from an event or just a great photo from the area, we want to showcase our local communities throughout the next year.

Photo of the day: The Haley Gallery, a contemporary art gallery at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, recently celebrated the opening of Heritage: Southern Vernacular. The exhibition features quilts made by women in the Gee’s Bend community of Alabama, as well as sculptures and two-dimensional works from Black vernacular artists who are also associated with the state.

On Thursday, Nov. 7, Gee’s Bend quilters Loretta Pettway Bennett, Claudia Pettway Charley, Marlene Bennett Jones participated in a panel discussion moderated by Paul Barrett about Gee’s Bend’s history and its connection to the museum’s expanded box set of recordings and online experience From Where I Stand: The Black Experience in Country Music. The collection, which spans a century of country music by Black artists, is illustrated with Gee’s Bend quilts from roughly the same time periods as the music. Following the panel, a public reception was hosted in the Haley Gallery to celebrate the exhibition’s opening.

On Friday, Nov. 8, Gee’s Bend quilters Loretta Pettway Bennett, Claudia Pettway Charley, Marlene Bennett Jones, Cathy Mooney, Joe Ann Pettway and Stella Pettway participated in a quilting demonstration in the Haley Gallery in the afternoon.

Gee’s Bend quiltmakers featured in the exhibit include Loretta Pettway Bennett, Marlene Bennett Jones, Polly Middleton, Cathy Mooney, Doris Pettway Mosely, Cynthia Pettway, Emma Mooney Pettway, Mary Margaret Pettway, Stella Pettway, Andrea Pettway Williams and Shu’Nae Williams. Complementing the quilts are sculptures, paintings and works on paper, by Richard Dial, Thorton Dial, Charlie Lucas, Betty Sue Matthews and Mose Tolliver. The exhibition, which is guest-curated by Paul Barrett, is free and open to the public through Jan. 7, 2025.

The artists included in Heritage: Southern Vernacular have been exhibited at museums including the Frist Art Museum, High Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Orleans Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum and Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

We invite you to submit your original photos!

If you have a photo you would like to submit for Photo of the Day, click here. Please include a brief description of the photo and your name.