George Jones, Jr. is a fourth-generation broommaker based in Florence, Alabama. George’s great-grandfather, George M. Jones, began creating brooms during the Great Depression to generate income for the 1,200-acre share-cropper farm he managed. After his father grew a very good batch of broomcorn in 1986, George Jones, Jr. began creating brooms and took the family business beyond just function through brooms that stand alone as works of art. In 1992, he exhibited at the Kentuck Festival of the Arts and sold everything he brought by 1pm on Saturday. That experience created the motivation he needed to follow what he loved.

Today, George Jones, Jr. still grows broomcorn and uses some of the same broommaking equipment that his great-grandfather purchased in 1931. He has received several grants and awards from the Alabama State Council on the Arts, including a Folk Arts Apprenticeship grant in 1996 and 2013, and a Fellowship in Craft in 2007. George’s brooms are in public and private collections throughout the southeast, including Kentuck’s Permanent Collection.