KFAC celebrates Minnie Adkins’ 90th birthday

The Kentucky Folk Art Center (KFAC) is celebrating the 90th birthday of prominent folk artist Minnie Adkins. 

Adkins’ birthday party is from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 9, at the Morehead Conference Center. Those who attend can meet Adkins, and her work will be displayed on the first floor of KFAC. The event is free and open to the public 

“The Kentucky Folk Art Center is celebrating Minnie Adkins's 90th birthday to honor and celebrate her accomplishments with her many years of being a folk artist and the growth with the Kentucky Folk Art Center since the mid-1980s,” said Tammy Stone, administrative coordinator of KFAC. 

Minnie Adkins is a Kentucky folk artist born in Isonville on March 13, 1934. She started selling her painted wooden carvings in Morehead in 1983. By 1985, several of her works were added to the KFAC collection. 

In the late 1980s, Adkins and her husband, Garland Adkins, founded a folk art fair named A Day in the Country, which was last held at KFAC in 2017. An annual folk art festival bearing Adkins’ name, Minnie Adkins Day, is held every year in Sandy Hook on the third Saturday in July. This year's event is July 24. 

“I have worked with Minnie for almost 27 years,” said Stone. “Minnie is not only one of our biggest supporters of the folk art center but has encouraged and supported many artists with their self-taught folk art career. She is a delightful and passionate person that everyone loves once they have a chance to meet her.” 

Adkins not only has become famous in Kentucky but nationally too. Adkins has permanent collections in: 

• American Folk Art Museum in New York City. 
• Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. 
• National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. 
• High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia. 
• KMAC Museum in Louisville. 
• Huntington Museum of Art in Huntington, West Virginia. 
• The Hickory Museum of Art in Hickory, North Carolina.  

Adkins’ work is also part of the private collections of notable celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Barbra Streisand. 

Located in the historic Union Grocery, KFAC houses a permanent collection of nearly 1,400 pieces of self-taught art. Dozens of works from the collection are displayed on a rotating basis in the center’s first-floor gallery. The center presents several changing exhibits each year in the second-floor gallery, featuring folk art, fine art, textiles, photography, and historical content. KFAC also offers a gift shop with original folk art, crafts, jewelry, books, toys, housewares, and much more. 

For information about the event or the Kentucky Folk Art Center, call 606-783-2204 or email Stone at t.stone@moreheadstate.edu.