HEALING ONE STEP AT A TIME
with Marquita Sams
movement | mental health | spiritual healing
The Redd Family
Collection of Black Art
The Redd Family Collection of Black Art, housed in Macon, GA, includes over 800 works of art by Black artists such as Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, Kathleen Wilson, Ernie Barnes, and William Tolliver. We are currently digitizing, exhibiting, and developing infrastructure to permanently house this archive. Please contact us to support the effort
to preserve this culture treasure.
Our Story
In 1990, Melgenia and Vernon Redd opened a gallery called Miracles Fine Art, and it was the first institution of its kind in Macon, GA, that specialized in exhibiting the work of Black artists. Inspired by an activist passioned forged in an era that saw the end of Jim Crow, they were determined to contribute to the preservation and celebration of Black art and culture. Over time, they built a collection of over 800 items, including paintings, sculptures, masks, mixed media works, and woven fabrics. In 1996, the gallery closed due to health challenges. The entire collection as subsequently moved to storage.
In 2022, their children Marques Redd and Marquita Sams began to develop an infrastructure for digitizing, preserving and exhibiting the Redd Family Black Art Collection. To date, they have photographed the entire collection and are actively working to archive and build a permanent home for these works. In June 2022, they exhibited work from the collection for the first time in over 20 years during Art as Liberation in Pittsburgh, PA. In June 2023, they participated in the 31st Annual Juneteenth Freedom Festival in Macon, GA. In February 2024, they displayed their exhibition Pioneers of Purpose at Macon’s Douglass Theatre. In November 2024, they contributed pieces to the Tubman African American Museum’s exhibition The Water Spirit Will Take Us Home.
In April 2025, the Redd family will unveil Miracles: A Selection from the Redd Family Collection of Black Art at the Tubman Museum. This landmark exhibition will celebrate the artistic legacy of the original gallery and mark the most comprehensive public presentation of the collection since its closure nearly three decades earlier. Reintroducing long-hidden treasures to the public, the show will honor the pioneering vision of Melgenia and Vernon Redd and serve as a powerful act of cultural revival-reaffirming the family’s enduring commitment to preserving, exhibiting, and sharing the brilliance of Black artistic expression.
1990s
In this WMGT-41 news clip from the 90s, Vernon and Melgenia Redd share the inspiration that drove them to build Miracles Fine Art, the first gallery centering Black visual art in Macon, Georgia.
2010s-present
Marquita choreographed and performed this dance in honor of the legacy her parents left on the community and with inspiration from childhood memories at Miracles.
Miracles: A Selection from the
Redd Family Collection of Black Art
on Exhibition at The Tubman African American Art Museum
310 Cherry Street, Macon, GA 31201
Friday, April 18, 2025, 9:00am-Saturday, June 28, 2025, 5:00pm
Admission is free for museum members and $5 for the general public.
For more info about the exhibit contact the Tubman Museum at 478-743-8544
Rainbow Serpent is honored to present "Four World Ages (IV)" alongside a photo collage featuring "Opening the Mouth," "Myth-Science of the Gatekeepers," "Obi Mbu (The Primordial House)," “Prayers Answered,” and additional works. This exhibition also marks the premiere of photography from the "Four World Ages" series.
Miracles in Motion is honored to present a photo collage of our movement healing workshops, healing services, choreography, and original, hand-painted Oracle Deck.