Instead of closing "Women of the Arkansas Delta," the Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas made it the center's first traveling art exhibit.
Under the direction of Curator Chaney Jewell, the exhibit consisting of 24 black-and-white, 1970s-era photographs was carefully packed up and transported to the Johnny Cash Boyhood Home museum in Dyess for its June 27 opening.
"We had a great response over the weekend," said Penny Toombs, director of the Johnny Cash Boyhood Home. "The feedback concerning the exhibit has been wonderful."
The exhibit closes Aug. 30. After Dyess, the exhibit will be at the Delta Gateway Museum in Blytheville from Sept. 1 until Nov. 30, and then at the Lakeport Plantation in Lake Village from December until March. The exact dates are to be determined.
No matter the location, the exhibit is free to the public.
The Johnny Cash Boyhood Home museum is located at 110 Center Drive in Dyess in Mississippi County, and it is open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. More information can be found at dyesscash.astate.edu.
Jewell, who oversaw the design layout and installation of the exhibit at the ASC, said tackling her first traveling exhibit was a learning experience.
Funding for the traveling exhibit, about $5,000, came from grants from the Arkansas Humanities Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Pine Bluff Advertising & Promotion Commission.
The money was used for purchasing packing cases, for travel expenses and -- of major importance to Jewell -- for ensuring that the exhibit is free to the public.
Jewell said she is eager to see how other institutions arrange the images within their gallery spaces.
"I'm curious and looking forward to feedback from others about the exhibit," she said.
It's her hope that this isn't ASC's last traveling exhibit and that it provides an opportunity to streamline the entire process and learn from any missteps.
"I see this as a baby step. This is a unique opportunity for ASC," Jewell said.
Toombs would also welcome a second exhibit from ASC and said Jewell was informed and easy to work with.
For her personally, Toombs said, "I love the simplicity of the work. It speaks for itself."
THE EXHIBIT
"Women of the Arkansas Delta" photographs reflect determination, poverty or surprise; others show youthful optimism or contentment. Some of those pictured appear beaten down by a long, hard life but are still upright and proud. One young woman, clad in bell bottoms and an Army jacket, seemed to stare toward an uncertain future.
The multiracial faces are captured in their own small piece of the world and by photographer Cheryl Cohen, who was commissioned by the Pine Bluff Women's Center Inc. in the mid-1970s.
The featured women from the 1976 project are Maeleen Clay Arrant, Ora Brown, Lucyle Cantley, Mrs. O.G. Dawson (Ethel B.), Chanah Reid Foti (later LaMarre), Emma Merlo and Jessie Tidwell, and all were of Pine Bluff.
Others were Geneva Byrd of Tucker, June H. Davis of Altheimer, Idella Kimbrough of Gould, Mildred Laureles of Snow Lake, and Annie R. Zachary Pike of Marvell.
Only two of the women, Merlo and Pike, are still alive, and both were recently interviewed by Jewell at the ASC.
According to the ASC website, the work was conducted in the mid-1970s by the Pine Bluff Women's Center and made possible by an American Revolution Bicentennial Commission grant. A wide variety of women were interviewed -- including social justice activists, farmers and small-business owners.
The photographs and original negatives were given to the ASC, and a book, "Women of the Arkansas Delta," grew out of the 1976 oral and photographic project of the same name, with the goal of gathering, preserving and publishing information about women.
Jewell said that as curator, "I am hoping that the audience can feel a connection toward these women."
MILESTONES
For the ASC, it's been a year of milestones. The most notable, perhaps, was the ASC's campus expansion that included the newly renovated ARTSpace on Main, now open at 623 S. Main St., and the completed and soon-to-open ART WORKS at 627 S. Main St.
In May, the ASC opened "Women of the Arkansas Delta," its first exhibit in the ARTSpace. And although it's maybe not as visible as other 2021 milestones, the ASC's first traveling show is an important one, Jewell said.
