Private Collection Of Southern Art Opens At Florence County Museum

Visitors will get an inside look at the world of private collectors at the Florence County Museum’s new art exhibit, “Inside Out.”

The exhibit is composed of work collected by Ray Griffin and Thom Robinson, an Asheville, N.C.-based couple.

It will be the first time the museum displays contemporary Southern Appalachian art and art made by self-taught outsiders.

Stephen Motte, the museum’s curator of interpretations and collections, hopes the exhibit gives visitors a window into the sometimes opaque art world and the role private collectors play in it.

“There’s all these relationships that you don’t see that collectors have with other collectors, that collectors have with galleries, that collectors have with artists, collectors have with museums that they donate to,” Motte said. “… A lot of significant collections in big museums are donations from private collectors whether you know it or not.”

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