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Dixie Art Colony - TPR's In Focus - July 8, 2026 · In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson

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  Support comes from the Janice Hawkins Cultural Arts Park
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  on the main campus of Troy University,
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  featuring the International Arts Center,
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  the Fred Nall Hollis Museum,
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  and the Hua Bao Zhu Gallery.
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  More information at troy.edu slash arts park.
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  From Troy Public Radio, this is In Focus,
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  and I'm Carolyn Hutcheson.
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  The legendary Dixie Art Colony had its roots in Alabama,
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  and Tisha Rhodes, Executive Director
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  of the Montgomery County Historical Society,
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  and Mark Harris,
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  President of the Dixie Art Colony Foundation,
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  bring you the story.
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  Their organizations are collaborating
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  on a retrospective exhibition at the Fye Pickett House,
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  featuring the work of artist Doris Alexander Thompson,
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  famous for her lithographs.
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  ♪♪
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  Tisha Rhodes, welcome back to Troy Public Radio.
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  Thank you for having me.
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  Mark Harris, welcome to the program.
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  How did you get interested in the Dixie Art Colony?
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  I grew up in Wetumpka, where Kelly Fitzpatrick was from,
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  and he was one of the founders
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  and also one of the founders
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  of the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts,
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  so I was very interested in art.
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  And one day, through my graphic design work,
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  I was sitting at the computer,
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  and I ran across an article
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  that was in Alabama Heritage Magazine.
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  It was about the Dixie Art Colony.
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  That prompted me to want to learn more.
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  I ordered an archived issue
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  and thought something really needs to be done with this.
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  This is an important part of Southern history,
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  both art and general history,
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  that needs to be recognized and appreciated.
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  And that's really how it all got started in 2011.
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  What was the era of the Dixie Art Colony?
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  It began in 1933.
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  It was an arm of the Montgomery Museum,
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  which also began right around that same time.
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  There was a school associated with the Montgomery Museum
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  called the Montgomery Museum School.
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  Although the museum was located in Montgomery,
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  most of the colony events and outings took place
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  either in western Elmore County or eastern Autauga County,
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  as well as some in southern Chilton County.
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  They actually met for two years in Prattville.
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  You know, Tisha, among the programs you have been bringing
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  to the Montgomery County Historical Society
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  was a recent program about Zelda Sayer Fitzgerald
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  and her friends.
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  Didn't they have an art club of some sort?
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  They did.
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  You know, they were instrumental
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  in a lot of early art meetings, gatherings, clubs, groups,
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  working together to surround themselves
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  with other creative people,
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  much as is the case with Dixie Art Colony.
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  I recall something about the Montgomery Sketch Club.
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  Were any of those members part
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  of the Dixie Art Colony, Mark?
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  They were, and Doris Alexander Thompson,
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  who's the subject of the current exhibition
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  at the Montgomery County Historical Society,
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  was one of the co-founders, along with Zelda Fitzgerald,
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  of the Montgomery Sketch Club,
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  which was held at the Church of the Holy Comforter
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  at the time it was located on Gulfway Street,
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  and they did live drawing sessions and other sketching.
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  There were numerous members of the Dixie Art Colony
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  that were also associated with that sketch club.
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  One in particular I want to mention is E. Herndon Smith.
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  This took place during the 40s.
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  He was in charge of the federal art projects
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  for the state of Alabama during that period.
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  Mark, you have spent years researching this group.
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  What was the most surprising thing you found?
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  The number of people that were involved in this group.
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  There were a lot of surprises along the way.
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  The daughter of one of the Dixie Art Colonists
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  was actually a classmate of my mother's in high school,
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  which was a real surprise.
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  We documented 138 artists that were involved
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  in the colony as it met in the Montgomery area,
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  and then there were additional people involved
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  in the spinoff that occurred down in Mobile County.
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  So close to 200 people were involved in this effort.
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  And in the art world, what was their impact?
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  They had a huge impact in the art world
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  as far as the South in particular was concerned,
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  because Kelly Fitzpatrick, as I mentioned,
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  was one of the founders
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  of the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts.
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  Also, some of these artists were instrumental
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  in founding the Birmingham Museum of Art,
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  the Mobile Museum of Art,
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  as well as the Mississippi Museum of Art
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  over in Jackson, Mississippi.
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  Lots of them were also educators on the college level,
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  as well as the primary level.
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  So Tisha, can you describe the opportunities
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  coming up at the Fye Pickett House?
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  So this current exhibit that Mark and I
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  are in partnership with is called
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  Doris Alexander Thompson, Painter, Lithographer,
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  and Novelist, and it's on view here
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  at the Fye Pickett House through September 3rd,
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  Tuesday through Thursday, nine to four.
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  In conjunction with this beautiful exhibit,
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  we've got two brown bag Lunch and Learn programs
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  that are free and open to everybody.
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  The first one is Wednesday, July 15th.
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  Our Lunch and Learn start about 1130,
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  and we're done 1230, one o'clock.
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  But this one on July 15th,
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  the speaker's gonna be Beverly West Leach,
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  who's an artist and adjunct professor
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  in the Art and Design Department at Troy University.
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  And she's gonna share about the process
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  of stone lithography.
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  That is a fascinating printmaking technique.
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  So tying into the art of Doris Alexander Thompson,
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  how many pieces will be on display
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  at the Fye Pickett House?
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  So there are 40 pieces on view
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  here at the Fye Pickett House,
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  and it's a retrospective exhibition
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  highlighting her life and her work.
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  She sketched, then transferred the compositions to stone,
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  and then created the prints.
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  And the thing about lithography
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  is each stone is a unique work.
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  So everything is considered an original artwork.
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  And what's coming in August?
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  So Wednesday, August the 5th, again at 1130,
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  Mark is going to share more details
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  about Doris's life and her technical process.
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  Mark, where can your listeners find
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  a Dixie Art Colony exhibit?
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  We do move around to different locations.
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  We have one coming up in Millbrook during the month of July.
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  We also have an ongoing exhibition on display
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  at the Prattville Creative Arts Center
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  here in downtown Prattville
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  every month except the month of October.
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  And we change those exhibits out usually quarterly.
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  Could you give us a website?
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  Our website is dixieartcolony.org.
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  We have information about programs,
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  examples of our collection,
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  which includes more than 1,600 pieces of art,
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  also memorabilia.
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  What do you think the impact of the Dixie Art Colony
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  is on the art world today?
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  The bulk of what they did were regional painting,
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  primarily in watercolors, some oil painting on site.
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  And there's a process called plein air painting,
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  which is French for open air painting,
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  where they would actually travel to different locations.
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  And there is a real trend towards getting back
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  to that type of painting.
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  There is an Alabama Plein Air Association.
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  And with your love of history,
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  doesn't it occur to you that the Dixie Art Colony
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  was all about preserving history in visual means?
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  I look at these people as visual historians
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  that created visual records of history.
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  You know, the rural landscape that was in this area,
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  turpentine mills, cotton gins,
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  anything that they saw in the countryside in this area
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  was a subject that they would paint.
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  Mark, this has been fascinating.
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  Thank you for being our guest today.
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  Thank you very much.
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  Tisha, thank you so much for your visit.
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  Thank you.
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  More information about the Dixie Art Colony Foundation
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  can be found at the website, dixieartcolony.org.
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  More information about
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  the Montgomery County Historical Society
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  can be found at the website, mchsal.org.
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  And our guests were Tisha Rhodes,
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  Executive Director of the Montgomery County
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  Historical Society, and art historian, Mark Harris,
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  President of the Dixie Art Colony Foundation.
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  Thank you for joining us today for In Focus,
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  which is a podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
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  I'm Carolyn Hutcheson,
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  and this is listener-supported Troy Public Radio.