The Bandy Heritage Center Launches a New Lecture Series Commemorating Northwest Georgia Textile and Fiber Arts Heritage

On Tuesday, September 9^th at 6:30 p.m., the Bandy Heritage Center will be kicking off a new lecture series to commemorate the unique textile and fiber arts legacy of Northwest Georgia. The 2025-2026 Bandy Heritage Center Lecture Series in Textile and Fiber Arts features leading experts and artists in the traditions of Northwest Georgia textile and fiber arts. The series will tell the story of Northwest Georgia’s vibrant textile and fiber arts heritage from its beginnings among the Cherokee to the multibillion-dollar carpet industry of today. It is being sponsored by the Bandy Heritage Center, Dalton State’s Derrell C. Roberts Library, the Dalton State Appalachian Studies Minor Program, the Prater's Mill Foundation, the Georgia Chapter of the Trail of Tears Association, Friends of New Echota, the Chattanooga Fiber Arts Guild, and Birchwood Fiber Festival. 

There will be four lectures in total, with two during the fall semester and two in the spring semester.

The first lecture will be presented by acclaimed Cherokee National Treasures and artists Lisa Rutherford and Cathy Abercrombie. It is titled “Cherokee Textiles, Clothing, and Culture Before and After Removal” and will narrate the story of the unique diversity and vitality of Cherokee textile traditions from the sixteenth century to the present. Rutherford and Abercrombie will discuss and display the materials, customs, and artistry which have woven Cherokee textiles into being such a vibrant thread within the fabric of Cherokee culture past and present. The lecture will take place on September 9th at 6:30 p.m. in Lecture Hall 146 of Gignilliat Memorial Hall of Dalton State College.

The second lecture will be presented by MESDA Curator Lea C. Lane and is titled “Southern Comforters: Quilts and Coverlets from the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts.” Lane will share some of MESDA’s textile treasures, including early examples of bed coverings from Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. The lecture will take place on November 6th at 6:30 pm in Room 201 of Derell C. Roberts Library of Dalton State College.

The third lecture is “Catherine Evans Whitener and Other Women of theNorthwest Georgia’s Tufted Fashion Industry” and will be presented by Ashley Callahan. The presentation will discuss the history of candlewick and chenille garment production in northwestern Georgia from the 1920s through the 1950s. Callahan will highlight the roles of Catherine Evans Whitener and other women who were the leaders and innovators in the field.. The lecture will be held at the Main Gallery of the Creative Arts Guild on February 19th, 2026, at 6:30 pm.

The final lecture, “The Rise of the Carpet Industry in Northwest Georgia,” will be presented by Randall Patton and focus on the tufted textile industry’s transition from chenille to the multibillion-dollar carpet industry of today. The presentation will be hosted by Derell C. Roberts Library of Dalton State College on April 9, 2026 at 6:30pm.

Lisa Rutherford is an award-winning multi-discipline artist who works in pottery and textiles, and is known for her feather capes and eighteenth-century Cherokee clothing. She works from her home studio within the Cherokee Nation reservation in Oklahoma. In 2018, she was named a Cherokee National Treasure in pottery. This recognition acknowledges her pottery skills and her efforts to promote and preserve Cherokee cultural arts. As a Cherokee National Treasure, she is a cultural ambassador for the Cherokee Nation.

Cathy Abercrombie is an acclaimed third generation Cherokee loom weaver, who is known for her exceptional talent in authentically replicating and preserving original Cherokee designs as well as innovating new and dynamic designs, which demonstrate her profound connection to her heritage and exhibit her creative spirit. She currently resides within the Cherokee Nation reservation in Oklahoma, where she owns and operates Cherokee Woven Spirits Studio - Cathy Abercrombie Textiles. In 2021, she was designated a Cherokee National Treasure for her dedicated and passionate work in preserving the traditions of Cherokee floor loom weaving. As a Cherokee National Treasure, she shares her commitment to her heritage by serving as a cultural ambassador for the Cherokee Nation.

Lea C. Lane is Curator of the MESDA Collection & Director of MESDA Summer Institute at the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Winston-Salem. She possesses a Master of Arts in American Material Culture from the Winterthur Program at the University of Delaware. She has held positions at Preservation Virginia, the Cincinnati Art Museum, Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library, and Colonial Williamsburg.  Her writings on American material culture and decorative arts can be found in the Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts, Antiques and Fine Arts, and the Journal of the American Art Pottery Association. She is also a coauthor of Layered Legacies: Quilts from the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts at Old Salem.

Ashley Callahan is an independent scholar and former curator of decorative arts at the Georgia Museum of Art. She holds a Master of Arts in the History of American Decorative Arts from Parsons School of Design and the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, and a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from Sewanee, the University of the South. She is the author of Southern Tufts: The Regional Origins and National Craze for Chenille Fashion, Frankie Welch's Americana: Fashion, Scarves, and Politics; Georgia Bellflowers: The Furniture of Henry Eugene Thomas; Modern Threads: Fashion and Art by Mariska Karasz; and Enchanting Modern: Ilonka Karasz, and coauthor of Crafting History: Textiles, Metals, and Ceramics at the University of Georgia. 

Randall Patton is Professor of History and Shaw Industries Distinguished Chair at Kennesaw State University. His writings on the industrial and labor history of Georgia have appeared in the Georgia Historical Quarterly, Labor History, the New Georgia Encyclopedia, and Oxford Research Encyclopedia. He is coauthor, with David B. Parker, of Carpet Capital: The Rise of a New South Industry, author of Shaw Industries: A History, and editor of Working for Equality: The Narrative of Harry Hudson, and Lockheed, Atlanta, and the Struggle for Racial Integration.