Cultural Area for Restoration, Art, and Renewal Established on Converted Previous Plantation
Confronting the past can facilitate the journey toward a fairer future. While there are numerous methods to achieve this, storytelling stands out as one of the most impactful and emotionally engaging. A former plantation in Harpersville, Alabama, is leveraging arts, education, and cultural programming to foster reconciliation, healing, and restoration. Now called the Wallace Center for Arts and Reconciliation, this establishment is collaborating with 1504, a narrative studio located in Birmingham, to realign the narratives of Black descendant communities through storytelling.
The center is named after Samuel Wallace, a man who enslaved up to 95 individuals and utilized those he enslaved to construct his plantation residence in 1841. Following his death, it was inherited by several family members and, in 2018, came into the possession of Nell Gottlieb, his second great-granddaughter. Together with co-founder Theoangelo Perkins, Gottlieb founded the non-profit organization Klein Arts & Culture. This organization was granted the house in 2019 and in 2023, rebranded itself as the Wallace Center for Arts and Reconciliation.
In collaboration, the Wallace Center for Arts and Reconciliation and 1504 have been—and continue to be—working with designers, historians, and local leaders to create content and exhibitions that encourage visitors to delve deeper than mere intellectual insight and to truly feel the impact of events that transpired at the former plantation.
“Observing members of the descendant community step into the Wallace House and interact with artifacts and view photographs from their family legacy served as a powerful reminder of the force of storytelling,” Tyler Jones of 1504 told NPR, “to weave together memory, personalize history, and acknowledge human dignity.”
The current exhibition is titled Out of Whole Cloth: Marking History & Making Home, 1865 – 1910. Curated by Dr. Elijah Gaddis and designed by Robert Finkel of Auburn University, it showcases commonplace items to narrate the experiences of three families of free individuals in post-Emancipation Alabama as they navigate their newfound freedom—and the challenges that came with it.
Earlier projects consist of The Praise House, which captured the creation of a site-specific sculpture by multi-disciplinary artist Tony M. Bingham. His artwork pays homage to the hidden history of “hush harbors,” where enslaved individuals congregated to worship, mourn, and resist. In Healing History, descendants of both enslavers and the enslaved participated in candid and frequently challenging discussions. “Those conversations unveiled a profound desire for recognition,” Jones remarked, “and highlighted the necessity of addressing the atrocities of racial violence while avoiding the reduction of the Black experience to mere tales of trauma.”
Out of Whole Cloth will be available to the public through November by appointment at the Wallace Center for Arts and Reconciliation.
The Wallace Center for Arts and Reconciliation, once a plantation in Harpersville, Alabama, utilizes arts, education, and cultural programming to foster reconciliation, healing, and repair.
The organization partners with 1504, a narrative studio based in Birmingham, to restore focus on the stories of Black descendant communities through storytelling.
Its most recent exhibition is entitled Out of Whole Cloth: Marking History & Making Home, 1865 – 1910. It features everyday items highlighting the experiences of three free families in post-Emancipation Alabama as they seek to carve out lives where they finally gained their freedom—and little more.
Past projects include The Praise House, which documented the creation of a site-specific sculpture by multi-disciplinary artist Tony M. Bingham.
In Healing History, descendants of those who enslaved and those who were enslaved participated in sincere and frequently difficult dialogues.
Exhibition Information:
Out of Whole Cloth: Marking History & Making Home, 1865 – 1910
Closes November 30, 2025
The Wallace Center for Arts and Reconciliation
35184 Highway 25, Harpersville, AL, United States, Alabama
The Wallace Center for Arts and Reconciliation: [Website](https://wallacearts.org/) | [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/wallacearts1841/) | [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/wallacecenterforartsandreconciliation#)
Source: [A former plantation becomes a space for healing, art and reparative history](https://www.npr.org/sections/the-picture-show/2025/06/19/nx-s1-5439338/a-former-plantation-becomes-a-space-for-healing-art-and-reparative-history)
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