Leanna Leithauser Lesley and Tara Stallworth Lee – Back in Your Own Backyard
April 30 - July 12
North Floor Gallery
This exhibition round includes works provided by Leanna Leithauser Lesley and Tara Stallworth Lee which will be on view in the North Floor Gallery from April 30 – July 12, 2025. Lowe Mill A&E invites patrons and art lovers to join us for Open Studio Night, a building-wide experience when our over 150 studios will be open to the public. The evening also includes receptions for all seven of our gallery spaces. This series gives the public a chance to meet and interact with visiting artists and discuss their work as it is on display and available for purchase. Come out, enjoy a pleasant evening, and maybe you’ll find that special piece of art that speaks to you! The Open Studio Night reception is Saturday, July 12 from 5-7 pm.
About the exhibit:
From Birmingham’s historic Industrial Highschool and Huntsville’s famed Alabama A&M to the far reaches of outer space, “Back in Your Own Backyard” celebrates the music educators, students and musicians of a rich and influential jazz legacy. An interplanetary melody of original works by Leanna Leithauser Lesley and Tara Stallworth Lee, the exhibition revolves around the resplendent Sun Ra, avant-garde performer, composer, bandleader and poet. Dare to knock on the door of the cosmos.
From Leanna Leithauser Lesley:
Though I didn’t know it at the time, 2006 brought an opportunity that changed the trajectory of my career as an artist in ways I couldn’t have imagined. After being offered an exhibition at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and concerned about the suggested “Jazz” subject matter, a meeting with Dr. Frank Adams, Director of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, was scheduled for me. Following our initial meeting, Dr. Adams (Doc) proposed that we meet every week for the entirety of the time I was creating the exhibition. I spent many Tuesday mornings in Doc’s small office at the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, listening to music, talking Jazz, and taking notes. I had been tasked with telling the American Jazz story within the framework of twenty needlepointed portraits and Doc was helping me reconcile where all the pieces fit together. Often his broader teachings about Jazz would go off-script as he would excitedly slide a relatable Birmingham musician into the greater Jazz music story. Doc had played in Fess Whatley’s Orchestra, also in Sun Ra’s Sonny Blount Orchestra and for a period of time, both simultaneously. He talked about his days as a student at Industrial High School, his time playing with Duke Ellington’s Orchestra in New York and his reasons for coming back to Birmingham. I couldn’t wrap my head around the gift I was being given at the time. I enjoyed our Tuesday mornings together immensly.
The story that made my heart beat the fastest was the one he told about Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Billie Holiday, and others taking the Southern Railway, “Birmingham Special”, from New York to New Orleans playing gigs along the way. Upon arrival in Birmingham, meetings with Fess Whatley would occur to reveal which students from Industrial High School might be recommended to perform on the southern most part of the tour with the orchestras. Fess would have several offerings each time. At the end of the tour the students would be delivered back to Fess in Birmingham as these great band leaders made their way back to New York. The future employment of these students was certainly guaranteed. In its Jazz heyday 20th Century big bands, orchestras and swing bands were filled with Industrial High School students turned professional musicians. My hope is, Doc’s enthusiasm and joy for his beloved Industrial High School, this city and the music played here sings throughout this exhibition.
To my dear mentor I say thank you deeply. On day one, as I shared concerns about my ability and my right to tell this Jazz story properly, you expressly advised that we all have a great responsibility to keep these stories alive. I hear your voice in mine. In your honor and memory I carry on with my lifelong Jazz education as I create new pieces to add to “our” original exhibition in 2007.
Acknowledgements
Birmingham Public Library Archives, Burgin Mathews, Metropolitan Youth Orchestras of Central Alabama.
About the artist:
Leanna Leithauser Lesley is an avid needlepointer motivated by the power of jazz music, the perseverance of the civil rights movement and an intention to elevate the perception of needlepoint as an art form through the complexity of stitching portraits.
As a fiber artist, she is immersed in the idea of weaving together the quiet methodical ways of needlepointing with the often unrestrained methods of jazz music and civil rights. In capturing the drama and emotion of the figure she chooses to stitch, the finished artwork becomes a distinct freehand homage to the subject of her needlepoint as well as the photographer who took the image. Rejecting the shortcuts of technology, she relies solely on her training as a visual artist to paint the canvas with yarn using a needle as her brush.
Leithauser Lesley has exhibited her distinct portraits in museums, galleries and cultural art centers throughout the United States. She continues to increase the visibility of resolute individuals who have challenged the world we live in with her unique needlepoints while displaying gratitude for those who came before her.
From Tara Stallworth Lee:
With immeasurable gratitude to:
Leanna Lesley, for inviting me on this cosmic journey!
Dr. Frank Adams, for sharing your love of jazz with so many.
SUN RA, for expanding my universe and showing me a world of magic and possibility. You are an angel.
– TSL
“IT AIN’T NECESSARILY SO THAT IT AIN’T NECESSARILY SO.” – SUN RA
About the artist:
Tara Stallworth Lee works across mediums with a concentration in analog photography, papermaking, collage, and textiles. Expansion of human dignity is a central theme throughout all of her work which often serves as a catalyst for reflection and inspired action. In 1992, Tara received her BS in Psychology with a minor in Art from Birmingham-Southern College. She is the 2021/22 recipient of the Alabama State Council on the Arts Gay Burke Fellowship in Photographic Art and a studio resident at Ground Floor Contemporary. In 2023 she became the inaugural artist in residence at Studio By The Tracks, a studio and gallery for adult artists with autism. For over two decades, Tara has been teaching for individuals and institutions, including The Smithsonian Associates and the Alabama Prison Arts and Education Project. Tara lives and works in Birmingham, Alabama.