Upcoming Exhibitions

HOT WATER

September 2nd - December 6th, 2025

HOT WATER is the first comprehensive survey of Coulter Fussell’s years-long, evolving series of hand sewn quilted sculptures called “River Raft Quilts.” The works are sewn entirely from donated clothing and textiles. The series draws directly from her childhood growing up in Columbus, Georgia and uses the Lower Chattahoochee Valley as the narrative setting.

The quilted wall works and sculptures of the exhibition act as open-ended narrative vessels for stories of personal escape and tales of dream-seeking. She sews her personal odysseys as outfitted rafts and guide-maps. They are set to journey on a river rolling through valleys past bank-side mills, foundries and army bases -- amidst the Southern economic fallout’s reign upon the natural world. The fantastical works are outfitted with suggestions of fish nets to store catch, secret money bags, navigational stars, helicopter landing pads, submarine periscopes, children’s velvet pillows, lures, jigs, slot-machines and escape hatches leading to the bottom of the river.

Having these works shown at The Bo Bartlett Center, in view of the very stretch of river that inspired their making, lends a singularity to the exhibition that could not exist at any other institution.

Join us to hear Coulter Fussell talk about her fantastical quilted sculptures on Thursday, September 18th at 5:30 PM. Stick around afterwards for the combined public reception starting at 6:30 PM, celebrating HOT WATER and South Arts 2024!

2024 South Arts Southern Prize & State Fellowships for Visual Arts

September 2nd - December 6th, 2025

Launched in 2017, the South Arts Southern Prize & State Fellowships for Visual Arts project supports some of the best contemporary art in the American South. This exhibition presents work from the nine 2024 fellowships recipients, one each from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, the South Arts region.

The South Arts Southern Prize & State Fellows for Visual Arts exhibition is generously supported by the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation and Southern First Bank. Learn more about South Arts by visiting southarts.org.