Over the past year, I have furthered my research on artist Beverly Buchanan (1940–2015), including two trips to Georgia and numerous visits to the Archives of American Art here in DC as well as informal/personal archives of the artist’s network. My first trip to Georgia was in April 2024 and included stops in Atlanta, Macon, Juliette, Brunswick, and St. Simons Island. During this visit, I was accompanied by Erika Doss, my dear friend, colleague, and mentor. We traversed the state, meeting friends of Buchanan’s, seeing museum collections that feature Buchanan’s work, and searching for Buchanan’s environmental sculptures placed in various graveyards and historical sites. We also made stops to observe various graveyards to the Confederacy, curious about the machinations of how such histories are kept alive and unfortunately even celebrated today, and to visit former plantation sites and study cabins for enslaved people made with tabby concrete. The trip’s main goal was to locate Buchanan’s Marsh Ruins in Brunswick, which involved tracking the tides in order to visit at a time when the environmental sculpture would be visible. It was an extraordinary visit. 

My second trip in November 2025 was focused on Buchanan’s time in Athens, with a few day-trips to sites like the Madison-Morgan Cultural Center to see the permanent exhibition The Andrews Family Legacy: Rooted in the Agriculture and Arts of Morgan County. During this week in Athens, I got to know Buchanan’s close community of colleagues and neighbors in the area—from those keeping her legacy alive today to her best friends, caretakers, and even pharmacists. I am already planning another trip to Athens specifically to investigate archives at the University of Georgia, and to continue exploring Buchanan’s community. I extend all my thanks to Mo Costello, Katz Tepper, and Prudence Lopp for their generosity and hospitality. 

I have three articles that I am working on pertaining to Buchanan’s practice, and I am also continuing work on my book manuscript, whose working title is “Assembled Feminisms: Performative Sculpture and the Politics of Touch in the 1970s.”