Morehouse to get $1M worth of folk art in donation

A Miami art collector is giving Morehouse College $1 million worth of works from folk artist Purvis Young.

Morehouse officials are expected Thursday to announce the gift, the single largest art donation ever to the all-male historically black college.

The collection is 109 paintings donated by the Rubell Family Collection. In 2000, the organization bought everything Young produced from 1985-1999 with the purpose of donating it to places across the country that can display the pieces to the public.

Young lives in Overtown, one of the most impoverished neighborhoods in Miami. There he uses found objects like cardboard, refrigerator doors, fabric and cars to craft brightly colored works on poverty, drugs and crime.