Current Exhibitions at the Reece Museum

CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

• Bound & Threaded Stories (June 9 - September 12)

  Bound & Threaded Stories
   

  Bound & Threaded Stories is an exhibition produced by young artists that participated in the Reece Museum's annual Teen Renaissance Camp. This year nine campers, aged 12 to 16, worked with artist LaKesha Lee and Museum staff to create a fiber inspired exhibition. The camp was in session June 2 to 6, and the exhibition will be on display through September 12.

  Campers created personal quilts and a group installation that blends personal narratives in one of the Museum's galleries. Collaborating with artist LaKesha Lee, a Knoxville based artist, campers worked together to creatively reuse fibers, found, and personal materials to produce an installation that showcases storytelling through wall quilts, softs sculpture and fiber installation. 

  The Reece Museum is a unit of the Center of Excellence for Appalachian Studies and Services, which is housed in the ETSU Department of Appalachian Studies. The Reece Museum is located on the campus of East Tennessee State University and is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Follow the Reece Museum on social media for more content and digital programming. 

• Memory to Material & Objects (June 2 - September 19)

  LaKesha Lee's work is an ongoing material dialogue between past, present, and future that honors self-representation, family legacy, and the resilience of Black identity. Through assemblage collages, sculptural forms, and ceramics, Lee uses found objects-old photographs, textiles, ceramics, and everyday artifacts-as a material language to explore memory, history, and cultural traditions.

  Family is at the heart of Lee's practice. Drawing from matrilineal storytelling and African American craft traditions, she integrates photo repetition, material layering, and quilting techniques to recontextualize personal and collective histories. Repeating imagery creates new narratives, expanding the way the artist engages with every day, found resources.

  "I work with materials that carry personal and communal significance, layering found objects, fabrics, and ceramics to build intimate and expansive material composition. These materials act as vessels of memory, balancing preservation and healing. Through cutting, stitching, firing, and assembling, my process becomes one of repair and reclamation-an homage to love, resilience, and continuity within the African American experience." says Lee.

  
  LaKesha Lee is a multidisciplinary artist based in Knoxville, TN. Through her work, Lee provides self-empowerment by engaging with materials that foster storytelling and community connections. She uses techniques such as quilting, hand-building, and collage, combining found and self-made materials to craft visual narratives that bridge her family's past, present, and future. 

  
  Her work explores the premise of learning from history to shape a better future, challenging perceptions of Black bodies and physical labor. Lee honors her lineage by displaying visual fragments of family photos with family stories and southern historical references. 
  Through her evolving practice, she is cultivating a "material-language"-a diverse toolkit of methods that push the boundaries of creative expression. Her work not only preserves fragments of the past but also engages with African American history and the importance of Black representation. Found and handmade materials serve as a foundation for storytelling, reflecting resilience and connection across generations. 

  
  Lee's practice is rooted in material exploration, where accessible and natural materials become a language of freedom. For her, materials tell stories by combining unexpected elements and open pathways to discovery and connection. Her assemblage collages, sculptural installations, and ceramic works express a commitment to cultural preservation and innovation. 

  Lee has participated in several notable exhibitions, including Embodying Culture: Women in Appalachia at the Reece Museum, STofART at the Gadsden Museum of Art, and the 77th Annual Student Competition at the Ewing Gallery of Art + Architecture at the University of Tennessee. 

  A recent Master of Fine Arts graduate from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Lee earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 20 I 9. Her work celebrates Black representation and family legacy, offering visual narratives that honor the past while inspiring a shared future. 

  LaKesha Lee served as the Reece Museum's 2025 Teen Renaissance Art Camp visiting art instructor that took place the week of June 2 through 6. The nine participating campers produced an exhibition with Lee leading the projects. The exhibition, Bound & Threaded Stories, is on display in the adjacent gallery through September 12. 

• SPARK! ART (April 14 - June 20)

  SPARK! is a creative engagement program hosted at the Reece Museum for people with early- to mid-stage memory loss and their care partners. 

  Attending a SPARK! program provides care partners an opportunity to be together IN THE MOMENT. The programs are not reminiscent nor do they rely on recalling memories, but rather focus on observations, conversations and creative experiences – SPARK! offers something for everyone.

  During two recent SPARK! sessions, participants viewed artworks from the Reece Museum’s Permanent Collection as inspiration for their own creative process. Focusing on the act of making in the moment, rather than the end result, the group created over 30 works of art on display for you to enjoy.  

• From Africa to Appalachia: The Tie That Binds (January  27 - July 4)

  From Africa to Appalachia: The Tie That Binds presents works by artists and artisans who focus on aspects of life within African cultures and the African Diaspora from the early twentieth century to the current time. Sixty-seven pieces focus on themes of spirituality, ancestry, beautification, and art for art’s sake as they are expressed in sculptures, paintings, clay works, stone, glassworks, and indigenous materials.

  Diverse African artistic expressions form the foundation of this exhibition, and serve as a backdrop for the work of Appalachian artists, demonstrating the ties that bind them—culturally, spiritually, and emotionally--across time and distance. Particular attention is given to showing works that have not been exhibited at the Reece Museum within the past 10 years.

  An important component of this exhibition are works selected from The Sammie L. Nicely Collection. Sammie was an East Tennessee artist who left an indelible imprint on the Artscape of this area through his own works, as well as the work of artists that he inspired and collected over time. A co-founder of the non-profit corporation From Africa to Appalachia, Sammie had a broad, lasting impact on art education and the expansion of the arts in his home region and beyond. Works by some of his friends, family, and students are a part of this exhibition. Some pieces were created specifically for this event.

  From Africa to Appalachia: The Tie That Binds is curated by Dr. Althia Fain Ali. Growing up in east Tennessee with Sammie Nicely, the two were lifelong friends who collected art and traveled together extensively. A career educator, Dr. Ali earned an MS and an EdD from the University of Tennessee, and held administrative and faculty positions nationally and internationally in public universities, and in private and independent institutions. Dr. Fain Ali began collecting art from Africa and the African Diaspora in the mid-1970s, acquiring many pieces as she traveled around the world.

   

   

Schedule a Tour:
Email Spenser Brenner with preferred dates, times, and estimated number of individuals for a tour. Please schedule your tour at least one week in advance. We look forward to having you and your group in the Reece Museum!