An example of the hooked rugs from the Rosement Industries.
Superabundance: The Legacy of Laura Lu Copenhaver opens Feb. 13 at William King Museum of Art’s Price-Strongwell Cultural Heritage Galleries, Abingdon, Va.
Nominated as a Virginia Woman in History in 2007 by the Virginia Library, Copenhaver is an example of industrious ingenuity. From working with the Virginia Farm Bureau to founding Rosemont Industries, Copenhaver and her legacy bolstered the economy of Southwest Virginia for almost 100 years. This exhibition honors her accomplishments by highlighting the furniture and textiles of Rosemont Industries as well as her other achievements.
William King’s exhibition opens after the dedication of “Voices from the Garden,” the Virginia Women’s Monument in Richmond. The Virginia Women’s Monument is the nation’s first on the grounds of any state capitol to showcase the full range of achievements and contributions made by remarkable women in a variety of fields and endeavors. When completed, the monument’s life-size bronze statues, along with a Wall of Honor inscribed with the names of 230 notable women and room to add more names in the future, will help tell the whole story about the diversity of accomplishments, ethnicity and thought that shaped the Commonwealth of Virginia over the past 400 years. Copenhaver was chosen as one of those women because of her entrepreneurship in the textile industry.
“Like many states, Virginia has seldom recognized or elevated the significant contributions that women have made in every aspect of our great Commonwealth’s history and culture,” said the Honorable Mary Margaret Whipple, vice chair of the Women’s Monument Commission. “I remember the day about 10 years ago when Em Bowles Locker Alsop and her friends – most of them in their 80s and 90s – lobbied the General Assembly members and advocated for a monument on Capitol Square to honor and celebrate the women of Virginia. That seemingly far-fetched proposal is now a spectacular reality that will inspire today’s young people to overcome any obstacles that stand in the way of achieving their dreams, just like the women featured in this unique monument.”
This exhibition was organized by William King Museum of Art in collaboration with the Copenhaver family and is sponsored by the Bank of Marion.
