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Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities
Black Belt Treasures at Pebble Hill

Join us on Saturday, December 6, 2025 for a special holiday event featuring a market of fine arts and heritage crafts from Alabama’s Black Belt, artist demonstrations, and more.

Join us rain or shine for this free event—and enjoy complimentary coffee and hot chocolate while you shop and explore.

FEATURED ARTISTS

FAQs

Parking • Limited spaces are available in our lot (no permit required). Additional parking available along Debardeleben Street. Directions to the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities at Pebble Hill may be found here. 

Free parking is also available from the City of Auburn in the East Glenn Avenue Municipal Parking Lot, Felton Little Park and the Douglas J. Watson Municipal Complex.

Payment • Card, check, and cash accepted.

Food • We will have complimentary coffee, hot chocolate, and donut holes. Abadir's will be on hand with a table full of eats including grabs for the day, freezer friendly things to-go to include in your holiday spread, bread loaves for sharing and special stocking stuffers!

 

Interlocking colors that look like a quilt square with the words Black Belt Treasures underneath

Black Belt Treasures Cultural Arts Center is a non-profit organization based in Camden, Alabama. The organization was started with the objective to stimulate the economy in Alabama’s Black Belt region through the sale and promotion of fine arts and heritage crafts, as well as the provision of arts education opportunities. 

 

 

Artist Bios

ABADIR’S (SARAH COLE) • HALE COUNTY • Founded in 2020, Abadir’s has grown from a traveling pop-up bakery into a creative eatery and small-batch retail kitchen inspired by seasonal ingredients and cultural memory. Each menu is shaped with taste, nourishment, and heritage in mind, blending traditional Egyptian and Middle Eastern dishes with Southern influences. The dishes are a nod to the heritage of owner and head chef Sara Cole, whose palette and concepts are influenced by her half-Egyptian, half-Southern household growing up. Follow Abadir’s on Instagram at @abadirs.co.

BETTY ANDERSON • WILCOX COUNTY • Wilcox County born and raised, Betty Anderson grew up surrounded by heritage arts that were created out of necessity. From making their own soap and clothing, to furniture and quilts – Betty was ingrained with the heart and soul of an artist but didn’t know it. In addition, Betty’s father was a successful entrepreneur, who ran the longest open business by an African American in the Black Belt – The Camden Shoe Shoppe. After over twenty years of a professional career in New York City and living through being trapped in the subway under the World Trade Center on 9/11, Betty moved home to Wilcox County. Drawing from her childhood memories and learning, Betty began to make traditional lye soap. In addition, she made it her mission to honor her father’s hard work and memory by creating the Camden Shoe Shoppe & Quilt Museum. Follow on Instagram at @shoeshopquiltmuseum.

BILLY BAGGETT • MONTGOMERY COUNTY • From firefighting to forging art. Billy Baggett of Montgomery County is a retired firefighter-turned artist who now spends his days welding scrap materials into unique pieces of art. “The good Lord brings it to my mind and lets me work on it through my hands,” he says of his creative process. Welding has become his gift and entertainment, allowing him to express himself through metal. Growing up along the Alabama River, Billy draws inspiration from the natural beauty around him. His imagination sees potential in the most ordinary scrap, turning it into something extraordinary. Whether it’s the shape of trees, flowers, insects or the flow of water, nature’s influence is always present in his work.

CLAUDIA PETTWAY and FRANCESCA CHARLEY •  WILCOX COUNTY • Claudia Pettway’s earliest memories include playing beneath her grandmother’s quilting frame, surrounded by the creativity of her family in Gee’s Bend. Influenced by her grandmother Malissa Pettway, her mother Tinnie, and her aunt Minnie, Claudia creates work in the Gee’s Bend tradition while incorporating brighter colors when inspired. She works early in the morning, using cotton, denim, linen, and other fabrics, as well as card stock for note cards and wood for framing. Her daughter, Francesca Charley, carries this legacy into a new generation.

ANGELA TURNER FERNANDEZ • WILCOX COUNTY • Renowned Southern artist, Angela Fernandez has been dedicated to her craft for a decade, although her passion for art has been a lifelong journey. Specializing in whimsical abstract paintings, she draws inspiration from her extensive travels and participation in workshops across the United States, England, and two weeks annually in the south of France collaborating with local artists. Embracing a creative process that favors the liberating freedom of abstract expression, Fernandez delights in experimenting with textures, metallic paints, and metallic leaf to infuse her artwork with depth and vibrancy.

KRISTIN LAW • WILCOX COUNTY • A graduate of the University of Montevallo with a BFA in Ceramics and Art History, Kristin Law spent eight years as Curator of Collections and Ceramics Instructor at the Hermitage Museum & Gardens in Norfolk, Virginia. There, she developed an admiration for ancient Asian pottery, ceremonial bronzes, and American Arts-and-Crafts design. After returning home in 2009, Kristin reconnected with Black Belt artists who reminded her that true art comes from the soul. She is the owner of Possum Pottery & Jewelry, has taught art at BBTCAC, the Birmingham Museum of Art, and across the region, and was juried into the Kentuck Festival of the Arts in 2018. Follow her on Instagram at @PossumPottery.

LISA and DANI LEMLER – PERRY COUNTY  Lisa Lemler and her daughter Dani, a geology graduate from the University of South Alabama, collaborate to create one-of-a-kind jewelry from silver, rocks, and gemstones. Each embossed pendant is individually crafted, given a patina, and finished with gemstones or glass as the design calls for. In addition to jewelry, the pair also turn to painting: Lisa uses watercolors on scrap steel, sealing each piece with resin, while Dani paints in acrylics with an abstract style. Together, they blend precision, creativity, and family tradition.

ANDREW MCCALL • LOWNDES COUNTY • Andrew McCall, also known as the “Vine Man,” has been crafting everything from baskets to birdhouses for around 40 years. He began his artistic journey after watching a friend make grape vine wreaths, and his love of creativity kept him going from there. Before finding his passion for art, McCall tried a few things, including trade school, college, and serving in the military. Now, crafting his artwork through kudzu vines and wild wisteria keeps him busy. To find and gather supplies, he searches the woods and abandoned areas near his home, located south of Montgomery. When using these raw materials, his philosophy is simple. “Working with a wisteria or kudzu vine is kind of like dancing,” McCall said. “You have to let it tell you what to do – never get ahead of the vine.” Follow him on Instagram at @vineman45.

BUD ROGERS • CLARKE COUNTY  • For nearly forty years, Bud Rogers has been creating beautiful art from wood. A self-taught master of the wood lathe, Bud takes pleasure in crafting the usual and unusual. Gun cases, cabinets, and beds are among his many creations along with his ornaments and ceiling fan pulls. To fashion these unusual pieces, Bud laminates domestic and exotic woods together resulting in a multicolored block of wood. From that block, Bud carefully maneuvers the wood lathe to produce amazing hand-turned Christmas ornaments and decorative ceiling fan pulls. The satisfaction of taking a piece of wood and making an item that is delightful and intriguing to the eye is reward enough for Bud.

LAURA SPENCER • DALLAS COUNTY • Laura Spencer makes goat's milk soap, skincare products, beeswax candles, and more at her small family homestead in Marion Junction. Every product is handmade using natural ingredients, such as beeswax, natural butters and oils, herbs, and goat milk. Candles and body butters are complete in a matter of hours, but soap can take up to 3 months before reaching perfection. Laura attended soap making classes at Camp McDowell’s Folk School in Walker County. She loves knowing that her products are as useful to others as they are to her family, and that they are not harmful to skin or to the environment. Follow her on Instagram at @simplymakingit.

Learn About the Black Belt

Read "Black Belt Region in Alabama" from the Encyclopedia of Alabama. (Black Belt Treasures Cultural Arts Center has an article too!)

Watch Alabama Black Belt Blues, a one-hour documentary produced by One State Films in partnership with Alabama Public Television (APT).  The film, directed by Alabama filmmaker Robert Clem, is about the state’s African American blues tradition from the days of slavery through the 1930s and ‘40s, when John and Alan Lomax were able to record hundreds of songs for the Library of Congress with the aid of Sumter County folklorist Ruby Pickens Tartt, to the present day. View the film here.

Watch our playlist on YouTube: