Murfreesboro, TN - Middle Tennessee State University’s Baldwin Photographic Gallery has earned the Gold Prize at the 2024 Southeastern Museums Conference Competition for its 2023 exhibition, “Deep Roots: Evocations of the Mississippi Blues.” This accolade highlights the collaborative efforts of veteran photojournalist and MTSU alumnus Bill Steber, MTSU School of Journalism and Strategic Media assistant professor Andrea Hall, MTSU Department of Media Arts associate professor of photography and gallery curator Shannon Randol, and MTSU Public Relations Storytelling graduate students.

“The exhibition combined photographs, mixed-media pieces, and artifacts, along with interviews with Bill made by the students in the storytelling class,” Randol explained. “We also were able to install a portion of an authentic sharecropper house in the gallery so that viewers could get a sense of where the blues originated.”

“Deep Roots” won in the category for exhibits with budgets under $10,000, a testament to the true collaboration of sources, strengths, and talent. “Many hands came together to make this happen and it is nice to see recognition from an outside organization,” Randol said. “We thought this exhibition was very competitive in our category. After seeing the award winners from other categories, we think this exhibition would have been competitive in other categories as well.”

Randol and Hall received the award at the Southeastern Museums Conference’s annual meeting in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The nonprofit membership organization includes museums, museum staff, independent professionals, and corporate partners from the Southeastern states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

“This award means that the gallery is recognized by a group of peers in the museum and gallery world as being exemplary. It was nice to see all the work that Andrea Hall, Andrea’s students, Bill, and myself put into this exhibition being acknowledged,” Randol said.

In addition to being recognized in the museum world, “Deep Roots” became the most well-attended exhibit in Baldwin Gallery history. “We had a record number of people that visited the gallery, and the artist talk had over 140 attendees, one of the largest since the pandemic,” Randol noted.

During the exhibition, Baldwin Gallery also hosted well-known blues musician Alvin Youngblood Hart and prominent blues historian Scott Baretta in the Chris Young Café on campus for a conversation on blues music. Hart performed original music and covers during the conversation while Steber’s work was projected on a screen throughout the event.

Randol is working with Steber to take the exhibition on the road and hopes to host a screening next year of a documentary about Steber by renowned filmmaker Robert Mugge.

Although Steber’s work has been featured in numerous exhibits, he said the Baldwin Gallery brought him full circle since taking his first photography class at MTSU in 1986, which led to a 30-year dedication to chronicling the blues diaspora of Mississippi. “Shannon Randol and the Baldwin Gallery gave me the opportunity to present that work in a dynamic and comprehensive way unlike any other gallery exhibit I’ve ever done,” Steber said. “Not only was this the culmination of my life’s work, presenting it at the place that gave me my start made it all the more meaningful.”

Although the “Deep Roots” exhibit is no longer on display in the gallery, you can still peruse some of the images and artifacts online at Baldwin Photographic Gallery. You can also see more of Steber’s work at Steber Photo.

MTSU’s Baldwin Photographic Gallery, part of the university’s College of Media and Entertainment, was founded in 1964 by professor Harold Baldwin to provide access to inspiring photographic works for the community. The gallery, which is free and open to the public, is located at the top of the stairwell in the interior courtyard of the Bragg Building, 1735 Blue Raider Drive. Gallery hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays when university classes are in session or by appointment. Off-campus visitors can obtain a temporary permit from the Parking and Transportation Services office at 205 City View Drive or pay by plate by visiting this webpage and clicking the appropriate link under “Visitor Parking.” Visitor permits are $2 per day. A parking map and more information is available at [MTSU Parking](https://mtsu.edu/parking