Episode 42 | From the Brewery to the Gallery: Inside Red Oak’s Griffith Museum

Episode 42 | From the Brewery to the Gallery: Inside Red Oak’s Griffith Museum

Author: Matt Ledbetter October 27, 2025 Duration: 1:04:23

Matt and Sully sit down inside the Griffith Fine Art Museum at Red Oak Brewery to explore where fine art and folk art meet. Surrounded by a collection of American Impressionist paintings from the late 1800s, they talk about the crossover between high-end galleries and the handmade traditions that define Southern craftsmanship. What starts as a laid-back conversation over a Hummingbird Golden Lager quickly turns into a mix of history, humor, and collecting philosophy.

Matt shares stories about his early days picking with his father, his time at auctioneering school, and how the lessons of the field still guide his work today. Sully brings up Liberty Antiques Festival, walking stick rivalries, and the fine line between a good buy and a mistake that costs you $900. From pottery and furniture to NFTs, the conversation reminds us that every object has a story, whether it’s hanging in a museum or hidden in a barn.

Chapters:
00:00 | Welcome to Red Oak Brewery
06:48 | Has Sully Been Practicing His Bid Calling? Matt Reflects on Auction School and Early Success
09:17 | Who’s Coming to Liberty Tomorrow?
16:15 | Crypto Tales, NFTs, and Auction Adventures
20:50 | Big Buys and the Art of the Auction
30:51 | Matt Recalls One of the Best Tables He Ever Picked
40:08 | Game Day Predictions for Liberty
51:03 | One of the Last Liberty Antiques Festivals
59:56 | Our First Calls to the Folk Art Hotline

As the conversation wraps, Matt and Sully raise a final glass to Red Oak for having us into their gallery and to everyone keeping art alive. Whether it’s a face jug, a walking stick, or a miniature chair, every handmade object carries a story worth telling.

Do you know a folk artist? Send in your folky stories:
📧 houseoffolkart@gmail.com
📞 (919) 410-8002
Leave your name and where you’re from, and you might just get a shoutout on the next podcast.

Follow @houseoffolkart for more behind-the-scenes stories and upcoming auction dates at LedbetterAuctions.com.


Matt Ledbetter lives in a world of vibrant paint, carved wood, and compelling stories. In House of Folk Art, this Gibsonville, North Carolina auctioneer and collector pulls up a chair to share that world, drawing directly from his deep connections within the Southern folk art community. His perspective is unique; because he organizes renowned quarterly auctions, Matt often knows the artists personally and has handled their work firsthand. This isn't a distant academic lecture. Instead, each episode feels like a conversation about the objects and the people who make them, exploring the intricate history behind the creations and the profound, often very personal, motivations that drive the artists. You’ll hear about intimate encounters and the small details that give this art its soul, from the choice of reclaimed materials to the narratives etched into the surface. Tuning into this podcast means getting a backstage pass to a living tradition, where every whirligig, portrait, or memory jug carries a fragment of cultural history. Matt’s guidance helps unravel the rich tapestry of this creative landscape, making the stories behind Southern folk art accessible and deeply engaging for anyone curious about the visual heritage of the region. The House of Folk Art podcast builds, piece by piece, a vivid understanding of why these works resonate so powerfully.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 58

House of Folk Art
Podcast Episodes
Episode 58 | Matt and Kyle Get Back to Folk Art [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:08:28
Matt and Kyle are back at the Auction Gallery in Gibsonville after a run of antique shows. Liberty and Fishersville were fun, but this episode gets back to the roots of House of Folk Art: self-taught art, pottery, carvin…
Episode 57 | Van Side at Fishersville Antique Expo [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 24:10
Fishersville was a great show this year. Friday was packed from the start, dealers were moving material early, and by Saturday morning Matt was already back at the van digging through the pile of things that he’s taking…
Episode 55 | Riding Out to Liberty with Matt Ledbetter [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:42
Matt Ledbetter sits down before heading out to Liberty, North Carolina to set up Wade's tent for the last Liberty Antique show.Held twice a year in Randolph County, the Liberty Antiques Festival has long been one of the…
Episode 54 | What Matt Bought at the Catawba Valley Pottery Festival [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 38:28
Matt Ledbetter and Kyle sit down with a table full of pieces from the Catawba Valley Pottery Festival and break down what they picked up over the weekend.Held once a year in Hickory, North Carolina, the Catawba Valley Po…
Episode 53 | 10 Picks Inside a 15,000 Sq Ft Folk Art Warehouse [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:04:08
In this episode of House of Folk Art, Matt Ledbetter and Kyle walk through the newly expanded Ledbetter warehouse and put it to use right away. With over 15,000 square feet of material to dig through, they each pick out…
Episode 51 | Mary Proctor: Called to Paint [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:06:13
In January of 1994, Mary Proctor lost her grandmother, her uncle, and her aunt in a mobile home fire. The grandmother who raised her, the woman she called mama, was gone. The grief was overwhelming. For thirty days, Mary…
Episode 50 | Rare 1990s Folk Art Footage from Tom Wells [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:19
Before museums and collectors caught on, Tom Wells was documenting Southern folk artists on VHS in the early 1990s.In this episode, Matt Ledbetter sits down with the longtime dealer to revisit those tapes and reflect on…
Episode 49 | From Football to Folk Art [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:19
Matt Ledbetter talks with Julian-Sherrod Summers, also known as Red Sanford, about how their shared background in football quietly ran alongside a growing interest in old objects, self-taught artists, and the stories tho…