Mission: Florence Arts and Museums builds community through public programming and collaboration. FAM promotes education, preservation, and public dialogue through four primary sites in conjunction with community partners. Through programs, collections, and events, we encourage visitors to learn, discover, and share. FAM aims to sustain bonds between art, history, people, and places.
Vision: A Community connected through art, history, people, and place.
MUSEUM ANNOUNCEMENTS
2023 Year in Review
We are so grateful for our community, our collaborators, our partners, our volunteers, and our supporters who allow Florence Arts and Museums to thrive. With your help, we set some impressive milestones in 2023, and are looking to continue this positive momentum into 2024. Whether you are looking to participate in a program, attend an event, learn more about the past, or volunteer at one of the four sites, there is something for everyone at FAM.
Thanks for the ongoing support!
Our new Historic Marker has arrived and has been installed at the Florence Indian Mound!
In 2021, we applied for a new marker with the Alabama Historical Association as part of their History Revealed marker program. We, along with others throughout the state, were selected as recipients. The new marker is placed at the entrance of the site and includes an updated history of the mound. It replaces a marker on the mound itself, which has been removed.
The new marker reflects a theory held by archaeologists that the mound may have been a burial mound. We are committed to working with our tribal partners to protect the integrity of the mound, and representing an accurate history of this incredible site.
Pope’s Tavern Wins 2022 AASLH Award of Excellence
Pope’s Tavern has received AASLA’s most prestigious recognition for achievement in the preservation of state and local history for the “Slavery in the Shoals” exhibit. Click HERE to Learn More!
Kennedy-Douglass Center for the Arts received $15,600.00 grant from the Alabama State Council on the Arts
Funding supported the “Childhood Classics: 100 Years of Original Illustration from the Art Kandy Collection” exhibit and related programs.
VALERIE S. GOODWIN: MAPPING THE STORY OF COTTON IN THE DEEP SOUTH
Valerie S. Goodwin was commissioned to create a textile art map for the Slavery and Cotton Exhibit at Pope’s Tavern with a grant from the Alabama State Council on the Arts and support from the Kennedy-Douglass Volunteers.
Valerie’s piece is a double-sided textile image. Externally, the piece speaks to the public at large, giving the exhibit a defining characteristic that helps to communicate the content within. Internally, the piece provides a focal point for museum guests and ties together the museum's narrative of slavery, cotton, and voices of the enslaved. Both images speak to the history of slavery and Black resilience in the Shoals community.
Valerie's work expresses the relationship between enslaved people and the antebellum Shoals landscape.
Alabama State Council on the Arts Awards Kennedy-Douglass $1800 Grant for After School Teen Art Program
In the Spring of 2022, the Kennedy-Douglass Volunteers launched a short pilot program to evaluate the interest and need for an after school art program aimed toward local teen artists. The program was a success! Under the guidance of art educator Tambra Howard, the group completed three big projects including special instruction from artist Jason Behel on illustration, a still life for Mother’s Day, and a large collaborative painting entitled “Bee Kind.” This last project was displayed during Arts Alive 2022 and later donated to the Kennedy-Douglass permanent collection.
The Alabama State Council on the Arts has awarded Kennedy-Douglass an $1800 grant to continue and expand this program in 2023 for our community’s young artists.
Thanks to the City of Florence and the Alabama State Council on the Arts!
Southall-Moore, the 1898 Queen Ann Victorian home adjacent to the Kennedy-Douglass Main House was donated to the City in 2002 by the Southall family. The house and landscaping were restored, and the house was officially dedicated in 2010.
In 2020 the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the City of Florence provided funding for additional renovations including artist studios and workshop spaces on the second floor of the building. These significant modifications allow us to expand our art education and outreach programs.