Thank you for your interest in supporting The Proving Ground (March 21 – June 14, 2026), the largest solo exhibition to date of Mississippi-based artist Coulter Fussell.
This landmark exhibition at the Mississippi Museum of Art will celebrate Coulter’s groundbreaking practice of transforming salvaged textiles into vivid, multi-dimensional works that tell stories of place, community, and resilience in the American South. The Proving Ground will be accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue, a robust schedule of public programs across Mississippi communities, and dynamic partnerships with artists and organizations that share her commitment to reimagining everyday materials into works of art.
Your sponsorship will directly make this vision possible. By partnering with the Museum, you honor Coulter’s artistic journey, invest in the communities that inspire her, and help ensure that Mississippi’s voices continue to resonate in the national cultural conversation.
About the Artist
Coulter Fussell (b. 1977, Columbus, GA) lives and works in Water Valley, Mississippi. After completing a BFA in painting at the University of Mississippi in 2000, she worked as a diner waitress for nearly two decades, occasionally making quilts on commission and writing a weekly newspaper column as an amateur local historian. From 2010 to 2014, Fussell collaborated with artist Megan Patton to open Yalo Studio, a community space for exhibitions and artist residencies situated on Water Valley’s Main Street. In 2014, Coulter opened Yalo Textiles two doors down, where she collected donated materials and taught textile workshops. Today, she uses the studio for her own full-time art practice, making mixed media works at the intersection of quilting, upholstery, photography, and sculpture.
Fussell’s work has been recognized by prizes and grants from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund for Feminist Visual Art (2024), South Arts (2024, 2017), the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters (2023, 2019), the Museum of Arts & Design (2021), Art Fields (2021), the Mississippi Museum of Art (2021), and United States Artists (2019), among others. Since 2020, her work has been the subject of eight solo exhibitions at art institutions across the South, including the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art (Charleston, SC), Alabama Contemporary Art Center (Mobile, AL), Institute 193 (Lexington, KY), Atlanta Contemporary (Atlanta, GA), and the Bo Bartlett Center (Columbus, GA).
Learn more about Fussell in our Makers in Spaces program here.
Join Us as a Sponsor
Explore the sponsorship levels below to find the right way to be part of this milestone exhibition and to help share Coulter’s work with audiences in Mississippi and beyond.
