Signs of the growing appreciation of folk art, and the appetite it whets, are everywhere. Starting November 21, the Whitney Museum of American Art will exhibit a collection of quilts sewn by four generations of African-American women in isolated Gee’s Bend, Alabama. The exhibition was organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, where it is on view through November 10. Debra Singer, the Whitney’s associate curator of contemporary art, acknowledges that an exhibition of homemade quilts in a museum known for its O’Keeffes and Rauschenbergs is "a little unusual. But from our perspective, these quilts are art. The distinctions aren’t so much fine art versus folk art—these quilts are just extraordinary works of art with the high esthetic standards you’d expect from that."



The lure of Antiques Roadshow and of unexpected jewels at neighborhood flea-markets. The desire for the stamp of individuality and the authentic that's found in crafts and primitives. Collectors are paying extraordinary prices for exceptional pieces and museums are rightly seeking to exhibit and preserve the treasures. Anneli Rufus writes on American folk art that is Coming Out of the Attic and into its own.