In 1981, Kevin Grogan, then Director of the Cheekwood Museum of Art in Nashville, gave Hippie a show in the Cheekwood Mansion Gallery. This was the first recognition on a large scale, an exhibit that validated years of dedicated effort. Many previous years of retail art shows helped Hippie refine the traditional silver gelatin process used in his work.

The result is the "Plateau Collection", recently accepted into the collections of The Morris Museum in Augusta, GA; the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville, TN; and the Museum of American History at the Smithsonian. This collection portrays the Plateau culture in a positive light. Unlike much of the journalistic efforts popular in the 70's showing the rural "poor" as weak and needy, "Plateau Collection" reveals the very positive side of a hill culture that maintained its identity despite a lack of money.

Earlier this year, Hippie's exhibit Renaissance Jack: The Work of Jack Stoddart -- Hippies, Hill People & Other Southern Marvels was featured at the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville.  Read the review of the exhibit that appeared in the Nashville Scene.

To learn more, or acquire some of Hippie's work, click here.