Tracing the Threads: Weaving in the Arkansas Ozarks

On exhibit from March 9 through early 2025

This exhibition traces the history of handweaving in the Arkansas Ozarks over the past two hundred years with a special emphasis on the importance of the Northwest Arkansas Handweavers Guild in supporting this craft tradition. The guild is celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2024 with a series of programs and exhibitions at sites across the region.

To the right is a photo of a tabletop loom by Lily Mills circa 1950 and a tapestry titled Cat Tails. Lily Mills of North Carolina made weaving yarn and sold this loom to help sell their yarns and threads. This loom is on loan from the Northwest Arkansas Handweavers Guild. The tapestry behind the loom was woven in 2017 by Beverly Maloney of Cave Springs based on a drawing of cattail plants she did many decades before.

Ozark Tree Army: The CCC at Devil’s Den State Park

On exhibit through early 2025

Ozark Tree Army: The CCC at Devil’s Den State Park is a photo exhibit featuring many photographs and select artifacts from the 1930s-era Civilian Conservation Corps work at Devil’s Den State Park near West Fork, Arkansas. The park was created on October 13, 1933, and the first company of CCC workers arrived a week later. The photographs document the efforts of this New Deal program and hundreds of corps members as they created trails, built unique structures that fit the Ozark landscape, and developed infrastructure that allows us to still enjoy the park today.

Photo on the right shows a gravel road leading to a bridge built by the Civilian Conservation Corps at Devil’s Den State Park in this 1934 image. Image is from the Shiloh Museum’s Mrs. Billye Jean (Scroggins) Bell Collection (S-95-6-72).

The exhibit is sponsored by Adventure Subaru of Fayetteville.