Pottery museum presents 'Another Look at Lanier'

SAUTEE NACOOCHEE - The Folk Pottery Museum of Northeast Georgia has opened a year-long special exhibition titled “Another Look at Lanier”, examining the legacy of Lanier Meaders.

“We associate Lanier Meaders almost exclusively with the development of folk pottery face jugs,” explains Museum Director Chris Brooks. “This exhibition will show utilitarian ware such as churns and syrup jugs and some with decorative elements like grapes and flowers that were characteristic of Lanier’s work but are not well known.”

In 1967 the Smithsonian Institution filmed a documentary about Meaders family folk pottery, in which Lanier Meaders demonstrated the traditions passed on to him by his parents, Cheever and Arie Meaders. Portions of the Smithsonian film are included in the Meaders family video shown in the Folk Pottery Museum. Lanier Meaders also produced a number of face jugs to sell in summer, 1967, in Washington, D.C. at the Smithsonian’s first Festival of American Folklife, noted by Dr. John Burrison in his definitive history of Georgia folk pottery, “Brothers in Clay.”

Dr. Burrison, folklorist at Georgia State University, goes on to sau in his 2010 book “From Mud to Jug”: ”The craft of North Georgia folk pottery is now kept alive by a collectors’ market. ……Although Meaders pottery was being collected as early as the 1950s, major interest in Georgia folk pottery was first stimulated by two 1976 exhibits: The Meaders Family of Mossy Creek at Georgia State University’s Art Gallery and Missing Pieces: Georgia Folk Art, a Georgia Council for the Arts traveling show that included a broad selection of pottery.”

The Folk Pottery Museum of Northeast Georgia is located at 283 Georgia Highway 255, ¼ mile north of the intersection with Georgia Highway 17, four miles southeast of Alpine Helen. The Museum is open Monday – Saturday 10 am - 5pm; Sunday 1-5 pm. Admission is $5 adults, $4 seniors, $2 children.

Link: Folk Pottery Museum of NE Ga.