What makes a place feel like home? The Athenaeum and the Georgia Museum of Art, both at the University of Georgia, are exploring this question through joint exhibitions on the work of Beverly Buchanan. “Shacks, Stories and Spirit: Beverly Buchanan’s Art of Home” will be on view at the Georgia Museum January 3 to June 28, 2026. “Beverly’s Athens” will be on view at the Athenaeum, the university’s non-collecting contemporary art venue, affiliated with its Lamar Dodd School of Art, January 16 to March 21, 2026.
Although known nationwide, Buchanan lived in Athens from 1987 to 2010, where she found inspiration in the everyday spaces around her. Using found materials, she built sculptural shacks and photographed humble dwellings across the region. Buchanan also made vibrant drawings that brought these places to life. Through her work, Buchanan argued that these overlooked structures mattered and held stories worth preserving.
“Beverly Buchanan’s art speaks to the South in such an intimate, powerful way,” said Shawnya Harris, Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Curator of African American and African Diasporic Art. “She lived here, she knew its landscapes, and she turned everyday materials into narratives of belonging.”
“Beverly’s Athens” is the first major solo exhibition of Buchanan’s work in the city. Guest curated by Mo Costello and Katz Tepper and funded through a grant from Teiger Foundation — a private foundation devoted exclusively to supporting contemporary art curators — it focuses on her the local and lived conditions that shaped her work in Athens. The exhibition emphasizes two intertwined threads from Buchanan’s Athens years: her modes of surviving chronic illness in the absence of an equitable healthcare system, and her multidisciplinary efforts to study and commemorate Black southern geography, traditions and forms.
“Shacks, Stories and Spirit” also focuses on resilience, specifically through the way Buchanan transformed weathered shacks into art.
“Buchanan’s ‘shacks’ hold layers of history and emotion, and the ‘spirit’ speaks to her belief in creativity as a form of survival,” Harris said. “I hope visitors feel that energy from works we have in the collection.”
Together, the exhibitions offer a comprehensive view of an important period in Buchanan’s career. Buchanan’s work is in collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the High Museum of Art and the Studio Museum in Harlem. She received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts and is recognized as a major voice in documenting African American life and Southern culture.
Related events include:
• A Toddler Tuesday at the museum on January 13 at 10 a.m. (free; email gmoa-tours@uga.edu to register)
• An opening reception at the Athenaeum on January 17 from 4 to 6 p.m.
• The museum’s spring semester open house on January 24 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., with Family Day from 10 a.m. to noon, door prizes, drop-in art activities and more (register at https://bit.ly/open-house-spring26)
• A talk at the museum by curator Shawnya Harris on February 4 at 2 p.m.
• A watercolor workshop at the museum led by Lauren Adams on February 19 and 26, from 6 to 8 p.m. ($25 members; $35 for non-members; register online)
• A Family Day at the museum on February 21 from 10 a.m. to noon
• A homeschool day at the museum on February 27 from 10 a.m. to noon
• A Faculty Perspectives talk at the museum by Cecila Herles, assistant director of UGA’s Institute for Women’s and Gender Studies, on March 18 at 2 p.m.
• An Artful Conversation on Buchanan’s found-object sculpture “Medicine Woman” with Callan Steinmann, the museum’s director of learning and engagement, on April 15 at 2 p.m.
Family Day is sponsored by Heyward Allen Cadillac-GMC-Toyota. All programs are free and open to the public unless otherwise indicated.
Authored by:
Leticia Nogbe
