Ozarks Buildings: Cultural Heritage and Containers of Spirit

West Plains Council on the Arts (WPCA) will host an exhibition entitled “Ozarks Buildings: Cultural Heritage and Containers of Spirit” by local artist Barbara Williams in the Gallery at the Center, West Plains Civic Center from September 14 through October 19, 2024. The Gallery, on the mezzanine, is open to the public during regular Civic Center hours.

This exhibit highlights the work of Ozarks people responding to a need. They picked up rocks to clear the land; the rock was free and was useful in making homes, barns, schools, churches and business buildings. Many were built between the 1920s-1940s, with sensitivity to the selection of rocks and placement, often adding interesting embellishments. These buildings held mothers and babies, grandpas and grandmas, through good times and bad times.

Recently the term “giraffe rock” has become popular, referring to a particular style of rock building. These are multicolored earth-toned field stone or slab rock, separated by raised beaded mortar which is sometimes painted white resembling the pattern seen on a giraffe. This is the Ozarks’ unique contribution to American architecture.

During the 1930s President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA) meant to put people to work and used local rock for public projects. The WPA created jobs in the Ozarks, but the agency could also be controversial among Ozarkers.

Examples of WPA built rock schools in this exhibit are scattered throughout the seven-county area of this research project. Included here are examples of one-room, two-room and two-story structures: Lost Pond, Oregon County; Wilderness, Oregon County; Blackjack, Douglas County; Boatman’s, Howell County; Couch, Oregon County.

Reflection on buildings as containers of spirit came after a recent trip to Turkey to see Hagia Sophia, a 1500-year-old structure built in the 6th century. It continues to emanate a powerful and peaceful spirit. Buildings have the potential to retain the spirit of those that built and/or occupied them.

Barbara Williams was born and raised in the Missouri Ozarks and earned art degrees from Southwest Missouri State University and Southern Illinois University, graduating with an MFA. After graduation she spent one year traveling and working in Europe, visiting countries of her favorite artists. In 1997 she returned to Europe, taking a class in monotype printmaking in Florence, Italy.

Her work has been included in international juried printmaking exhibitions in England, Italy, Poland, Yugoslavia, and numerous juried national and regional shows in the U.S., including one held at the Smithsonian Institution, which was also included in a year-long traveling exhibit. Williams’s prints and mixed media collage paintings are included in permanent collections in Little Rock, AR (Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts); Boulder, CO; Swannanoa, NC (Swannanoa College) and in private collections in the U.S. and Italy. In addition, her work has been featured in four Watercolor USA (Springfield, MO) exhibits. Influenced by impressions from an Ozarks 1940s-50s childhood, the prints and mixed media paintings are personal expressions and help preserve the history of that time and place.

Williams served as adjunct art faculty for 30 years at Missouri State University-West Plains.

WPCA will host the Opening Reception for the Ozarks Studies Symposium on Thursday, September 19, 2024, from 5:30-7:00 p.m., in the Gallery at the Center. The “Ozarks Buildings: Cultural Heritage and Containers of Spirit” exhibit will be featured. All are invited to attend, meet the artist, and discuss her work.  The exhibit is co-sponsored by the West Plains Civic Center and West Plains Council on the Arts, with partial funding provided by Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.