Americans have been impelled for varied reasons to render small buildings and structures. The nation’s largest and only such collection will be described at The Longwood Center for Visual Arts (LCVA) Friday, April 12, at 7 p.m. The documentary “Rendered Small” and a presentation on the collection and this area of American material culture will be followed by discussion with the collectors and the filmmakers.

The 16-minute documentary “Rendered Small,” the first national documentary explication American Folk Art Buildings, was envisioned and created by Marsha Gordon and Louis Cherry of Raleigh, North Carolina. The film merges revelations about the buildings, the two collectors, and the reality of daily life with so many small places. Dr. Gordon is professor of Film Studies at North Carolina State University, an engagingly astute author, speaker, and teacher about films. Cherry is among North Carolina’s lead modernist architects and an unfailingly good thinker about built places in large or small communities. Steven Burke will discuss and project images to explicate and reveal the collection as well his necessary learning over 35 years about the structures. Types and known or surmised reasons for their creation will be conveyed. A small number of representative buildings will be shown and explicated.

This event is free and open to the public.