The exhibition This Is Our Story features works by self-taught artists from various parts of the United States, with different levels of education and ethnic/cultural backgrounds. What all the artists have in common is that none of them practiced their creativity in the context of the academic art world. Instead, they created their work for personal use or for their families, for self-expression, self-representation, and to participate in the joy of making. Each work of art is deeply personal and invites us to connect to another human being and contemplate another’s story.
The word vernacular describes something created or used by ordinary people in a particular region – language, architecture and art can all be vernacular. There are many other terms used to describe the arts of ordinary people – folk, self-taught, visionary and outsider, to name a few.