Mounted during this year’s celebration of the United States’ semiquincentennial, a new exhibit called Folk Nation: Crafting Patriotism in the United States draws from American Folk Art Museum’s rich collections to explore links between vernacular art and the construction of an American sense of self.

Introducing museum visitors to the concept of “folk” as an art category developed in conjunction with the art and antiques markets, this focused exhibition works as multilayered in meanings, filled with cultural significance not only by their creators but also by their collectors and subsequent owners.

The Peaceable Kingdom with the Leopard of Serenity © American Folk Art Museum

Americans long preserved objects as a way of telling stories about themselves. Beginning especially after the Revolutionary War and gathering momentum in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, people turned to early American objects to construct a national history and sense of collective identity, an impulse often driven by lingering insecurity about the young nation’s perceived cultural provinciality in comparison to Europe.

Expanding on this legacy, collectors, dealers, curators and artists have applied the term “folk art” since the early 20^th century to champion wide-ranging forms of American creative production from the 1700s onward.

Uncle Sam riding a bicycle whirligig © American Folk Art Museum

Covering a kaleidoscopic array of genres produced outside the academic art world, from weathervanes and trade signs to quilts, carvings, painted portraiture and commemorative sculpture, the idea of folk art developed as a symbol of authenticity, ingenuity, independence and patriotism, representing key values perceived to be at the heart of U.S. culture.

Cenotaph to three martyred presidents © American Folk Art Museum

At the same time, these concepts were often romanticized, promoting a nostalgic and incomplete view of the nation’s past. Folk Nation investigates this complexity. Organized around themes that shaped American life, including family, heritage, spiritual vision and belonging, the exhibition traces how vernacular objects functioned as both mirror and tool, reflecting American identities while also helping construct them.

Folk Nation is open now until Sept. 13, during the installation of Locating Girlhood: Place and Identity in Early American “Schoolgirl” Art. The exhibition will reopen Oct. 8, and remain on view through Feb. 28, 2027.

The museum is located at 2 Lincoln Square, New York City.  Admission is always free.