AUGUSTA, GEORGIA.- The Morris Museum of Art opened the exhibit An Unbroken Circle: Selections from the Collection of Julia J. Norrell through February 18, 2007. In March 2006, William S. Morris III, founder of the Morris Museum of Art, announced the completion of a landmark agreement to acquire on behalf of the museum nearly one thousand works of art from noted Washington, D.C., collector Julia J. Norrell. This large body of art includes paintings, photographs, prints, drawings, sculpture, and folk art drawn from the portion of Ms. Norrell's collection related to the American South. Seen as a whole, the collection represents an unbroken circle, created by the energies of many artists and the collector, supported by her friends, and nurtured by museums, art dealers, and galleries.

An Unbroken Circle gives viewers an opportunity to enjoy some of the notable works of art included in the collection, among them important photographs by Clarence John Laughlin, Walker Evans, Bernice Abbott, Ben Shahn, William Eggleston, and Deborah Luster. Paintings, drawings, and mixed-media work by William Dunlap, Eldridge Bagley, William Tolliver, Jonathan Green, and Whitfield Lovell are represented, as are visionary and memory paintings by self-taught artists such as Howard Finster, Theora Hamblett, Clementine Hunter, Mose Tolliver, William Clarke, Minnie Adkins, and Jerry Coker. The celebrated William Christenberry is represented by both paintings and photographs.

The Morris Museum of Art is fortunate to be counted as one of the friends and partners of Judy Norrell and the new home for a large portion of her collection. An Unbroken Circle is only the first of many exhibitions that will emerge from that partnership.