Contemporary ceramic, textile and printmaking artist Ashlyn Pope takes us on a powerful visual journey through the trials of her Gullah ancestral history, the traumas of which have coded themselves deep within the artist’s psyche.

Pope’s exhibit, A History of Moving Forward II, will be on display at Myrtle Beach’s Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum from October 4, 2025 to February 15, 2026. The museum is located at 3100 South Ocean Boulevard. The museum is open Tuesday-Saturday: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sunday: 1 p.m.- 5 p.m. The Art Museum is closed on major holidays.

Pope explains, “As a young woman descended from the enslaved Africans in America, my body holds memories of my life while also recalling unconscious memories and responses imparted upon me by my ancestors. Although my mind cannot recall specific memories of my ancestors, my body has become in tune with the experiences my ancestors have gone through.” And in turn, learned reactions like fear, anger, sadness and survival have become embedded in her response system.

A History of Moving Forward II is Pope’s effort of dealing with this deep-rooted trauma: by going through the pain of it so as to overcome it and start envisioning a new future for future generations free from those built-in responses of dread, fury and grief. Employing Gullah motifs like sweetgrass basketry, Pope creates works expressing the human form, always ingrained with African American culture, as a way of addressing the Black human condition but also the resilience and beauty of the Black community.

Pope is an Assistant Professor in 3-D foundations at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, S.C. Pope earned her BFA in ceramics and printmaking from Kennesaw State University (Georgia) in 2013. She went on to complete her Master’s degree in ceramics at The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, in 2019. 

Pope has continued to expand her education in the ceramics field by serving as artist in residence at various locations, including the Lawrence Arts Center (2019-2021) in Lawrence, Kansas, and at Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, MN, (2023). Pope recently co-created and co-taught a ceramics course at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass, CO, and served as a juror for the ArtField’s Jr. competition in Lake City, S.C.

In the last few years, her work has been published in the book Contemporary Black American Ceramic Artists and graced the cover of Ceramics Monthly magazine.

A History of Moving Forward II is a follow-up exhibition to A History of Moving Forward, which was recently installed at Mason-Scharfenstein Museum of Art in Demorest, GA.