About Jerry Brown and the JBAF

Jerry Brown carries forward an unbroken tradition of Southern

stoneware pottery that has been in his family for nine generations. Adolphus Brown, Jerry's great grandfather, operated a pottery shop in the 1920's here in Cleveland, GA. A brother of his great grandfather worked for "Daddy Bill" Dorsey and Cheever Meaders at this time, where they were paid two cents a gallon for turning ware. In the early 1930's his father, Horace "Jug" Brown, moved to Lamar County, Alabama, a region rich in clay for pottery making and opened a pottery shop in 1941. Jerry and his brother were put to work in their father's shop before they were old enough to go to school. Jerry was 22 when his father turned the shop over to his sons.

Mixing the clay at the Pug Mill

Jerry and and wife, Sandra, run a small scale family operation. He still uses a mule to power his clay mill. He continues to use the old glazes - Albany slip, Bristol and ash plus producing many of the old traditional shapes, including churns, pitchers and the face jugs that the Brown family has been making since the turn of the century. His work is a testimony to the vitality and continuity of the Southern pottery tradition.

From 1985 through 1987, Jerry Brown participated in the Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program of the Alabama State Council on the Arts. The Apprenticeship Program, which is supported by grants from the Folk Arts Program of the National Endowment for the Arts, encourages the transmission of folk art skills from accomplished master folk artists to their students. In his case, Jerry worked primarily with his stepson Jeff Wilburn who is now a full-time potter at the Brown Pottery.
Jerry was awarded the National Heritage Fellowship in 1992, as well as receiving numerous merit awards. In 2003 Jerry was awarded the Alabama Heritage Award from the Alabama Arts Council.

Today business is thriving and the family is committed to their work, so the chances are good that Brown’s Pottery of Hamilton, Alabama will persist for another generation if not more. All this is due to the face that Jerry Brown decided to fulfill what he, his family, and many others have learned to appreciate as a very meaningful legacy.

ABOUT THE JBAF

The JBAF was created in 2003 by the city of Hamilton and the Hamilton Area Chamber of Commerce. In 2004 the festival was coordinated by individuals with an interest in growing the JBAF into a multi-county venture. Assisted with the help of the Hamilton Chamber Board members, the 2004 JBAF more than doubled in artists and festival visitors. At the conclusion of the 2004 event the JBAF moved into the hands of the newly formed Northwest Alabama Arts Council, Inc. - which serves a four-county region of Franklin, Lamar, Marion, and Winston. The JBAF, and the NWAAC, are both funded in part by the Alabama State Council on the Arts, in Montgomery, AL.

BELOW: Members of the newly formed arts council met with the Kentuck founder, and member of the Alabama Arts Council (Montgomery), Georgine Clark in 2003 to discuss the format of the JBAF. For more information on the NWAAC please visit us on the web at www.nwaarts.org.

Shown Are: Tyna Eick, Secretary of the Northwest Alabama Arts Council, Lamar County artist, Annette Otts, Kentuck founder and Alabama State Council on the Arts Representative, Georgine Clark, and Kay Marshall, Past-President of the Northwest Alabama Arts Council (2004-2006) and Past-Chair of the JBAF events.

With partial funding awarded from the Arts Council, the JBAF is building a foundation of quality and high standards. The hope is to establish a festival that will draw artist working in all medias who are interested in showing and selling their work at a juried exhibition. The festival is unique in the area of Northwest Alabama and Northeast Mississippi.

The slogan for the festival is "Reflections of the South" and the event is geared to present various artistic forms that are uniquely Southern. The JBAF event features storytellers who perform readings relating to Alabama life; Bluegrass music, presentations and displays from the local Bird Clan of the Echotas, and other "reflections" of our southern lifestyle.

The JBAF, and the NWAAC are proud sponsors of the Alabama State License Tag Legislative Committee's Support the Arts, tags. Please consider supporting the arts in Alabama (or your state) through your local Probate's office by purchasing a tag that shows that you support the Arts! Funding from the Alabama Legislative Tag Committee goes toward the funding of the arts in Alabama!

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