Florence Arts and Museums is proud to host architect and artist Valerie S. Goodwin on October 7th. Valerie 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.

Associate Professor Goodwin is an artist and architect with roots in Tuscumbia and Sheffield who applies laser cutting technology to the traditional practice of quilt making to create layered works inspired by real and imaginary landscapes. She received degrees in architecture from Washington University and Yale University and taught architectural design at Florida A&M University for over 26 years. Her award-winning work has been widely published and exhibited. She also lectures and gives workshops nationally and internationally. 

Valerie’s piece is a double-sided textile image. Externally, the piece will speak to the public at large, giving the exhibit a defining characteristic that will help to communicate the content within. Internally, the piece will provide a focal point for museum guests and tie 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 will discuss her process of creating the textile art map at the Kennedy Douglass Center for the Arts at 5:30pm on October 7. After the discussion, participants will walk one block to the exhibit building at Pope’s Tavern for the unveiling of the piece and the opening of the slavery and cotton exhibit at 6:30pm. The exhibit explores the institution of slavery and the production of cotton in the Shoals area. There will be a small reception in the yard at Pope’s Tavern featuring food by Soul Wingery and Records. Valerie's work expresses the relationship between enslaved people and the antebellum Shoals landscape.

This program is sponsored by the City of Florence Department of Arts and Museums, with support from the Kennedy-Douglass Art Center Volunteers and the Alabama State Council on the Arts. Call 256-760-6427 for more information.