The 2020 Collection Exhibition, Recent Acquisitions, highlights some of the works donated to Gadsden Arts over the last couple of years, including work by Beth Appleton, Mose Tolliver, Dean Gioia, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Edgar Tolson, and Purvis Young. Thanks to the generosity of nine donors, the Collection grew substantially in 2019. Sixty works of art were accessioned, a record number, bringing the total collection up to 172 objects. Fifty-four of these were additions to the museum’s Southern Vernacular Art Collection, featuring work by celebrated American artists such as Thornton Dial, Sr., Lonnie Holley, Mose Tolliver, O.L. Samuels, and Purvis Young. A new artist was added to the Permanent Collection, a sculptor from Kentucky named Edgar Tolson, who like other Vernacular artists in the collection such as Mose Tolliver, took up wood carving full-time after an accident left him unable to work.