Flights of Fancy

Is that a bird? Or is it your own heart singing?
Margaret W. Morley, The Carolina Mountains, 1913

The Blue Ridge region has, until recently, been rural, and the people are intimately attuned to the rhythms of the natural environment.

One way in which this relationship has been expressed is through the making of bird images. In the exhibit case are representations of birds --- realistic and fanciful, simple and elaborate --- across the centuries. Although the function and style of these images has changed over time, the creative expression of the relationship between humans and their environment remains a constant theme.