American Folk Art Buildings:
Architecture, Imagination, and Storied Places

The Collection of Steven Burke & Randy Campbell

Americans have been wonderfully impelled for varied reasons to render small buildings and structures. The nation’s largest and only such collection will be described at The Longwood Center for Visual Arts on Friday 12 April 2019 at 7:00 pm. The documentary "Rendered Small" and a presentation on the collection and this area of American material culture will be followed by discussion with the collectors and the filmmakers.

The 16 minute documentary "Rendered Small", the first national documentary explication American Folk Art Buildings, was envisioned and created by Marsha Gordon and Louis Cherry of Raleigh, NC. The film richly merges revelations about the buildings, the two collectors, and the reality of daily life with so many small places. Dr. Gordon is Professor of Film Studies at North Carolina State University, an engagingly astute author, speaker, and teacher about films. Mr. Cherry is among North Carolina's lead modernist architects and an unfailingly good thinker about built places in large or small communities. Their marriage survived dealing with 1200 buildings and 2 collectors.

Steven Burke will discuss and project images to explicate and reveal the collection as well his necessary learning over 35 years about the structures. Types and known or surmised reasons for their creation will be conveyed – as will be the happy passion shaping their gathering as well as the unfailing delight the structures yield in viewers. A small number of representative buildings will be shown and explicated.

This event is graciously sponsored by the Hotel Weyanoke. All LCVA exhibitions and programs are made possible through the generous support of the Wells-Fargo Foundation, the Walter J. Payne Foundation, Anne Carter & Walter R. Robbins, Jr. Foundation, the E.B. Duff Charitable Lead Annuity Trust, Southside Electric Cooperative, Gantt Insurance & Auto Owners, Walmart, Julie Dixon and Guy Dixon, Navona & David Hart, Real Living Cornerstone, and Helton House.