'A Visitor Among the Vines — Tomato Jug 1' by Virginia Otey, Wytheville, Virginia
William King Museum of Art, Abingdon, Virginia, presents the 17th biennial exhibition “From These Hills: Contemporary Art in the Southern Appalachian Highlands.” One of WKMA’s longest standing traditions, this major exhibition showcases fresh, dynamic works across a variety of mediums, celebrating the vision and creativity of artists from the region.
In this issue, we find out more about four of the artists: Richard Graves, Abingdon, Virginia; Blane Sage, Atkins, Virginia; Jessie Shinn, Asheville, North Carolina; and Mat Wheeler, Johnson City, Tennessee.
This year’s exhibition is juried and guest-curated by Kathy Foley, director emerita of the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin. In recognition of her service, the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Museum’s board of directors awarded her the title of director emerita and renamed the Rooftop Sculpture Garden in her honor. During her tenure, the museum was one of only 10, 2017 recipients of the National Medal for Museum and Library Service, the nation’s highest honor, awarded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal agency.
She received her undergraduate degree in art history with departmental and general honors from Vassar College and a Masters degree in art history from The Johns Hopkins University. Her museum training and professional and corporate experience include stints in the Department of Prints and Drawings at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC; curator at The Dayton Art Institute; founding director of Northwestern University’s Block Museum of Art; and the Gap, where she served as manager of corporate internal communication.
She was inducted as a Fellow of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters in April 2014, and received the Association of Midwest Museums’ Distinguished Career Award in November 2020.
On curating the exhibit Foley says, “Serving as the juror for the 2025 edition of ‘From These Hills’ was an honor and an exhilarating experience. Though I call the Upper Midwest home, through an ongoing project focused on the William King Museum of Art, I have come to learn about and deeply appreciate the extended Southwest Virginia region: its landscape, talented artists and art enthusiasts. I approached the review with an entirely open mind and was rewarded with an array of impressive, competent, thought-provoking and simply delightful artworks.”
“From These Hills” is on exhibit from Nov. 13 to March 15, 2026. This exhibition is a William King Museum of Art original exhibition and is part of the museum’s McGlothlin Exhibition Series. From These Hills is sponsored by Elizabeth A. McClanahan.
