Inside Alabama Artist Butch Anthony’s “Museum of Wonder”
Part art gallery, part curiosity cabinet, part roadside attraction, Butch Anthony's Museum of Wonder is unlike anything else you'll find in the South. A self-proclaimed "Intertwangleist," Butch transforms forgotten objects and stories into something unforgettable. Image: Arthur Rush
What if the most interesting thing in the room is the thing everyone else overlooked? That question has guided artist, collector, storyteller, and self-proclaimed βIntertwangleistβ Butch Anthony for most of his life. His Museum of Wonder is part art gallery, part cabinet of curiosities, part roadside attraction, and entirely unlike anything else in the South. Itβs a place where lost tools and toys find a second life, antique portraits sprout skeletal overlays, and ordinary objects become extraordinary treasures.
Butch grew up on his familyβs property in rural Seale, Alabama, where he still lives today βΒ in a house he built from the ground up. Long before his work appeared in galleries, restaurants, fashion houses like Billy Reid, and publications across the country, he was just a kid collecting treasures others might have written off as junk. When he found a dinosaur bone in a nearby creek at the age of 14, it forever changed his worldview.
βIt stopped me in my tracks,β he recalls. βA relic that old, just sitting there in the water, waiting to be noticed. That moment changed the way I see everything. I still get excited when I come across something most folks would walk right by: a broken toy, an old photograph, a bone in the woods, or a handwritten note. To me, those things arenβt just objects; theyβre stories.β
An Intertwangled Collection
Built from shipping containers along Highway 431, the free Worldβs First Drive-Thru Museum, part of the Museum of Wonder, is an exhibit in itself. Every item it houses, from a weathered instrument to an animal specimen, becomes part of a larger narrative once it enters Butchβs orbit.
βIt isnβt necessarily the object itself; itβs the mystery behind it,β he explains. βI find myself pondering where it came from, who held it, how it ended up where it did, and what it might have to say when placed next to something completely different.β
This instinct explains Butchβs signature artistic philosophy: βIntertwangleism.β Coined in the early 1990s, the term defines his practice of connecting seemingly unrelated items, thoughts, and stories into an entirely new idea. The result is artwork that feels whimsical, philosophical, and distinctly Southern β all at the same time.
Butchβs studies in zoology, geology, and biology at Auburn University helped shape a lifelong fascination with nature, an influence that continues to appear throughout his work.
βLately, one of the most profound connections Iβve made has been through working directly with bones,β he says. βIβve started sewing them together to create familiar things like houses, wedding dresses, and quilts. What most people would dismiss as useless, I try to transform into something recognizable and meaningful.β
In an era dominated by algorithms and carefully curated experiences, Butch offers something refreshingly analog: the joy of discovery. βI hope visiting the museum simply nudges people to spark something unexpected and make something of it,β he says. βNot just in art, but in life. If someone leaves and their eyes are open to new possibilities, then thatβs enough for me.β
Decades after unearthing that first dinosaur bone, Butch still approaches each day with the same sense of marvel. Heβs still collecting. Still creating. Still finding ties where others see none, whether itβs in his art or digging around his beloved garden (one of his latest and proudest accomplishments).
Perhaps thatβs the real lesson of the Museum of Wonder β not that the world is full of strange things, but that it becomes infinitely more interesting once you start paying attention.
βThe older I get, the more I realize that wonder isnβt hidden in rare treasures,β Butch says. βItβs all around us. You just have to slow down and be willing to look a little closer.β
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Anne Marie Hanna
An Ole Miss alum residing in Nashville, Anne Marie is passionate about telling the stories shaping the South. Outside of work, youβll likely find her on a porch with a coffee and a good book, gardening, listening to music, or enjoying time with friends and family.