A major retrospective and a focused exhibition of artist Beverly Buchanan's work are now on view in Athens, Georgia, where she lived for many years. "Shacks, Stories, and Spirit: Beverly Buchanan’s Art of Home" at the Georgia Museum of Art features her canonical "Medicine Woman" sculpture, while "Beverly’s Athens" at the University of Georgia’s Athenaeum presents a rich archive of her ephemera, sketches, and community-focused works, marking the city's first institutional solo exhibitions of her art posthumously.
These exhibitions are significant because they finally provide institutional recognition for an artist whose multidisciplinary practice was deeply woven into the local community. Buchanan's work, centered on Southern vernacular architecture and themes of care, class, and identity, was often shared through barter and gift in her lifetime. The shows highlight her ethos of embodied noticing and place-based making, cementing her legacy as a vital community figure and a nuanced chronicler of the Southern experience.