Art Grants Light Up LSU Museum’s New Folk Art Space

The LSU Museum of Art has secured a $25, 000 Learning and Engagement Grant from the national nonprofit Art Bridges. This money will back five new wellness‑and‑community projects that tie into the museum’s upcoming Folk Art Gallery, which opens on June 30. The gallery will borrow pieces from the American Folk Art Museum in New York through Art Bridges’ Partner Loan Network. Viewers can expect works by Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Mose Tolliver, David Butler, Sam Doyle, Purvis Young and Mary T. Smith. Art Bridges, founded in 2017 by Alice Walton, aims to make American art more accessible across the country. Its loan network lets museums exchange works so pieces that would otherwise stay in storage can be shown to the public. LSU’s partnership with Art Bridges lets the museum broaden its reach beyond visitors, offering art‑based wellness experiences in classrooms, hospitals and campus settings.The grant funds five related programs that run from September 2026 to April 2027. They are: a monthly drop‑in “Art Break” for teens and adults; campus pop‑ups that bring art into academic departments; a hospital outreach that creates art moments for patients, caregivers and staff at Baton Rouge General Mid City; a “Tiger Chill Night” that offers LSU students a creative escape from studies; and two educator nights to refresh K‑12 and university teachers. All activities are free, hands‑on, and designed to support emotional well‑being while lowering the cost of art participation. The Folk Art Gallery itself will feature a one‑year loan of six iconic self‑taught works from the American Folk Art Museum. Additional pieces on display include sculptures by Dr. Charles Smith, transferred from the Ohr‑O’Keefe Museum of Art in Biloxi; long‑term loans from Birmingham collector Doug McCraw that include Purvis Young, Richard Dial and Ronald Lockett; and works by Mary Proctor, Mr. Imagination, James Harold Jennings, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, plus ceramic pieces from North Georgia folk potters. These works come from the collections of Wyatt and Becky Collins in New Iberia, Louisiana. The museum’s new initiatives illustrate how art can bridge communities, help people heal, and bring stories of Southern self‑taught artists into everyday life.