Salado Museum and College Park presents a new exhibit, The Folk Art of Salado, featuring the works of Wilbur Foster, Virginia Kinnison Matthews and other Salado artists, on display 10am to 4pm, Mondays through Saturdays through Labor Day at 423 South Main in Salado. Also on display are entries in the museum’s recent Student Art Contest and Fundraiser.

Wilbur Foster is known for his charming carvings of stagecoaches, wagons and other horse-drawn transportation. “While the museum houses some of Mr. Foster’s creations in its collection, we hope that this exhibit will encourage others to add their Foster pieces to our collection through donation or on loan,” says Lynette McCain Jones, Museum Executive Director. “We are also very pleased to showcase the delightful paintings-on-wood and textile creations of Ms. Matthews during this special event.”

To participate in the Student Art Contest, Salado students were invited to embellish black-and-white illustrations of the original museum building using paint, markers, crayons, collage, or mixed media. The resulting creations are both imaginative and creative in as many different ways as there are students who submitted them. “Our thanks to Salado artist Michael Pritchett and the Salado General Store for donating prizes for the winning students,” says McCain-Jones.

Museum staff and volunteers have worked diligently over the last few months collecting and preserving examples of Folk Art from Salado through the years.

Folk Art is a genre that is not easily defined. It is art created by artists that have had little to no formal training. Although charming, their works often pay little attention to accepted rules of perspective and proportion.

Folk Art is often described as “primitive” or even “childish” and with good reason. Child artists all start out untrained and choose simple themes as their subjects. Adult Folk Artists often create handmade toys, dolls, and miniatures, or choose to paint images from their own childhood. Using available materials, these artists produce art that reflects their culture.

This exhibit focuses on a few examples of Folk Art in early American culture found in Salado, Texas now promoted and protected at the Salado Museum.

For the Student Art Competition students colored and decorated prints of a 1960 sketch of the original museum building done by Ann Robertson, daughter of Lucile Armstrong Robertson, founder of the Central Texas Museum. This fundraiser was a first for the Salado Museum and College Park. Students from all levels and Salado-area schools participated. Winners were chosen by visitors paying for and placing votes for their favorites.