Folk art fans plan museum (Raleigh News & Observer)

It is Tuesday, and Pittsboro’s Small B&B Café is closed.

But owners Lisa Piper and Dave Clark are not at rest. They are on the prowl for used windows for a new building they hope to begin constructing this spring on the corner of Small and East streets, the future home of the Small Museum of Folk Art.

“One Saturday two years ago, one of our very lovely customers, Gilda McDaniel, who is one of the coordinators of the Fearrington Folk Art Show, came into the cafe on a Saturday,” said Piper, who had customers lined up out the door. When McDaniel said she had to talk, Piper turned her duties over to an employee.

“You don’t say no to Gilda,” Piper said.

But then she tried to say no. McDaniel said she had a gentleman who wanted to donate his collection of about 400 pieces of folk art to someone who would then share them with the public.

“Gilda told me that she thought we should do this,” Piper said. “I told her that she was out of her mind.”