Sumac Cottage

06/03/2026

CALL TO ARTISTS: submissions are open now for Plumage, a thematic juried show at Sumac Cottage. for the past five years, we’ve been proud to partner with Alabama Audubon on arts programming for the Black Belt Birding Festival, including installations, murals, music and artist markets. last year we added a juried exhibition, and it was magical—so we’re bringing it back this year.

feathers have seemingly endless uses in the natural world—insulation, flight, and both for camouflaging or calling attention. for humans, they are used as writing instruments, bedding, fashion, and ritual uses. for this show, artists are asked to reflect expansively on feathers and plumage, from any perspective—their shapes, their functions, their materials, their possibilities. what would flight offer you? what do you flaunt or hide?

all media are encouraged to apply, including outdoor installation and site-specific work. accepted works will be on view at the cottage beginning 8/1 during Alabama Audubon’s 6th Annual Black Belt Birding Festival. submit by 7/3. all details can be found on our website—share with a friend!

05/22/2026

big thanks to Burnaway for visiting us, and for including us in their DIY Index. Check out the interview here.

Burnaway visits Sumac Cottage, a restored 19th-century building hosting workshops, exhibitions, performances, and community events in Greensboro, Alabama.

05/08/2026

hope to see you all TONIGHT, 5/8, from 6-8 for “Home Once.” Jenna Clark created these beautiful quilts as responses to stories of home told to her by her collaborators. those collaborators are joining her tonight for musical performance to accompany the quilts. they’ll play several short sets throughout the night—stay a little while, stay a long while.

05/07/2026

we’re so excited to have quilts from Jenna Clark at the cottage. join us THIS FRIDAY 5/8 for HOME ONCE, a visual installation and musical performance from Jenna with collaborators Ryan Brown, Jasper Lee and Sam Herman. each quilts is based on stories of home from each collaborator, and those collaborators will accompany her musically in a thematic soundscape played live over the course of the night. expect 3-4 short sets of about 20 minutes scattered through the night. stay a little while, stay a long while, just be sure to stop by!
Friday, 6pm-8pm

05/06/2026

blank walls and an empty cottage can only mean one thing: something new is coming! join us THIS FRIDAY 5/8 for HOME ONCE, a visual installation and musical performance from Jenna Clark with collaborators Ryan Brown, Jasper Lee and Sam Herman. Jenna has made quilts & mixed media textiles based on stories of home from each collaborator, and they will accompany her musically in a thematic soundscape played live over the course of the night.
Friday, 6pm-8pm

05/01/2026

have you made your plans to join us on friday, 5/8 at Sumac Cottage? “Home Once” is a combined musical performance + visual installation from Jenna Clark, with collaborators Ryan Brown, Jasper Lee (of Sweet Wreath) and Sam Herman (of Iron Giant Free Association). this body of work explores four stories centering on ideas of home, shelter, and places of belonging. the work highlights the fragmentation of interpersonal and communal relationships that occur from interacting through digital interfaces, by displaying different personal stories in both part and whole. These stories act as grounding orientations, abstracted reflections, and vignettes of place/landscape within North and Central Alabama. more details on the evening to come, but make your plans to join us in Greensboro!

04/30/2026

we’re looking forward to welcoming Sarah Bliss Wright to Sumac Cottage this evening for her fascinating lecture, tracing the history of feedsack quilts and their connection to Alabama. the lecture will start around 5:15 with a reception to follow. join us for a lovely evening! free and open to all, thanks to support from

04/28/2026

join us this thursday for a fascinating lecture tracing the evolution of feedsacks from a rural-household convenience, to a Depression Era necessity, to a wartime way of life, to an urban re-purposing fad, and how it all connects back to Alabama. the presentation will begin around 5:15 with a reception to follow. this event is made possible through a grant from the .

04/21/2026

On Thursday, April 30th at 5:00, Sumac Cottage and Black Belt Workshop welcome historian Sarah Bliss Wright for her presentation “Alabama Cotton and Bemis Bags, Pieced into Quilt History”. She will trace the evolution of cotton bags from a rural-household convenience, to a Depression Era necessity, to a wartime way of life, to an urban re-purposing fad.
Feedsack quilts represent the artistic expression of American women in a distinctive textile era, 1930‒1960, when such bed coverings were created from colorful, patterned fabrics that started out as feed or flour sacks. Many of these textile bags had their genesis in the cotton fields of Alabama because Bemis Bro. Bag Company, the largest textile bag manufacturer in the United States during the first half of the twentieth century, operated a cotton mill and bag plant in Bemiston, Alabama. Sumac Cottage will open at 5:00 with the lecture beginning around 5:15. A reception will follow.

This event is free to all and is made possible by the Alabama Humanities Foundation through a Road Scholars grant. “We’re honored to support nonprofits that use the humanities to make Alabama a better place to live,” says Chuck Holmes, Alabama Humanities Alliance’s executive director. “These grants help recipients bring the past to life, highlight our vibrant culture, connect us to each other, and help us better understand this dynamic and complex state we all call home.”

Sumac Cottage is located at 1107 South Street in downtown Greensboro, AL. Parking is available along Market Street and in the public lot behind the Greensboro Opera House. Details here: “Alabama Cotton + Bemis Bags,” a presentation at Sumac Cottage