Paintings by Caroline Ford Coleman 

March 30, 2024 - May 10, 2024. 

Artist and Educator, Caroline Ford Coleman's grandparents lived in the Athens neighborhood, Linnentown, now non-existent due to urban renewal funds that made the way for the forceful expansion of the University of Georgia in the 1960's. New publications, activism and theater projects have brought this into public concern resulting in a resolution by ACC formally apologizing for their role in the destruction of many Black families homes.   Coleman's exhibition of portraits tells the story of her family and other Linnentown community members. She uses photographs and site visits as inspiration to tell the story of those displaced.

“My grandparents Davis Johnson Sr. and Carrie Lou Faust Johnson lived in Linnentown at 123 Lyndon Row, Athens, GA, for which they were paid $2950 in 1964 by the City of Athens under the guise of Urban Renewal.  My mother, Geneva Johnson, is their seventh child of eight.  She, along with Joey Carter, began the research and advocacy into the Linnentown project.  She is now the owner of my grandparents’ house on East Broad Street; the same house my grandfather moved from Linnentown in 1964.” – Caroline Ford Coleman

Linnentown Then and Now will feature paintings of the faces of the Linnentown community placed in the current landscape of the Athens neighborhood.