News and Edits

I promise one day we’ll get this blog totally in order.  Well, maybe not totally in order.  Until then we appreciate your patience  as we continually try and make this blog useful.  Maybe you’ll notice we’ve redesigned things again.  I think maybe, just maybe, this one will function like we want it to!

We’re working on some big developments here at the McElroy House organization so stay tuned for all the details!  Until then check out this recent post from the Boiled Down Juice.  I’ll be discussing the McElroy House this weekend in Memphis and hope to draw in some more support for our work.  To read all about it click below.  Thanks for your continued interest and support!

Folklorists in the South retreat this weekend.  

Upcoming River Walk

Dardanelle Post Office Mural.

Here is this week’s The Seed and the Story column which comes out every other week in the Post Dispatch and the Courier.   Since this week’s column is about the upcoming River Walk and the McElroy House Booth I’m posting it here.  You can always read these columns and other writings at the Boiled Down Juice.  

We hope you will come join us, bring your stories, photos, and come enjoy cookies with us and support area artists and musicians.  And don’t forget one of the best ways to support your community is to shop locally and to give your money to area craftspeople, artists, and businesses.  The River Walk is a great place to do a little holiday shopping.  And before or after your shopping we hope you’ll join us to talk about the community’s past and the plans for the future.

Hope to see you there!

The Seed and the Story for November 30, 2011.  

Last week art historian Dr. Gayle Seymour visited the Dardanelle Historical Society to discuss the history and importance of the Dardanelle Post Office Mural.   You may recall a previous column from August of this year explaining how the mural was created under the Percent for Art model, a Depression-era federal program that provided employment to out of work artists and brought art to highly-accessible public buildings.  The artist who created our mural was Ludwig Mactarian, an ethnic Armenian who escaped the Armenian Genocide and came to New York at the age of thirteen.  Our mural, which features workers in the cotton industry, is one of very few Percent for Art murals depicting African Americans.  Equally important,  the artist’s focus on the struggles of share croppers suggests a multi-layered social commentary, making our mural unique and important on both a local and national level.

Close up of man in center panel.

Thanks to the hard work of Dr. Seymour, the great folks at the Dardanelle Historical Society and many concerned citizens, there are plans in the works to call more attention to the mural and work toward its eventual restoration. 

You have probably heard about the upcoming downtown Dardanelle Christmas River Walk December 9^th from 5:00-8:00 P.M.  Organized by the wonderful folks at Renaissance Front Street Restoration, this event will feature area artists, carolers, music, and more.  To help draw attention to the mural and its importance in our community, the Dardanelle Historical Society will be serving refreshments and handing out information about the mural inside the post office lobby.  Be sure and drop by and check out this historic work and learn more about its history. 

I’ll be present at the Art Walk as well, sitting at the booth for the The McElroy House: Organization for Folklife, Oral History, and Community Action.  We will be discussing various ways we can engage in research and public education programs centering on the mural and the history and themes it represents.  We’ll have some homemade treats on hand made by volunteers and information about documenting oral history in the area, especially cotton picking as depicted in the mural.  Did you grow up picking cotton in the area?  Did your grandparents?  We’d love to hear all about it.  One of our main goals of the McElroy House is to help document these community stories and preserve them for generations to come.  Please stop by and pick up a cookie and visit with us.  If you’ve got photos or other things you’d be willing to share, bring those too.  We’ll have a scanner on hand to scan in your old photos as well as other photos for people to view. 

Thanks so much for reading and I look forward to seeing you at the Christmas Walk! 

Update on Art Walk—No volunteers needed just baked goods!

I just heard this morning that the Dardanelle Historical Society has all the volunteers taken care of and will have a sign out front of the Post Office inviting people in to view the mural and cookies and drinks in the lobby.   Isn’t that great?

So they’ve got that taken care of.

We’ll still be at the McElroy House booth near the mural and will help direct people to the Post Office as well.

But we still need people to bring cookies or other holiday baked goods!  We’d love it if you’d be willing to share a batch of your family’s favorite holiday treat and help us showcase all the wonderful holiday baking traditions we have in Yell County!

If you’d be willing to bring some baked goods please let me know.

Looking for Volunteers for the December 9th Art Walk.

Help us call attention to our city's mural! Join us at the Art Walk!

Hello!  I’ll be updating soon about upcoming plans for the mural,  but right now we’re looking for volunteers to help out with our presence at the Art Walk on December 9th downtown. We’ll have a booth with information about the organization as well as  directing people to view the mural in the Post Office.

Here’s what we need:

* People to bake/bring cookies to pass out to people.

* People to come sit at the booth.  No need to worry about having to talk to folks.  Just help pass out cookies and encourage folks to take a look at the mural.

Can you help us out?  We’d very much appreciate it!   Send me an email to meredithmartin_moats (at) yahoo or send me a message on facebook or leave a comment.  Thanks!

Dr. Gayle Seymour Discussing the Post Office Mural Tonight in Dardanelle.

With permission from USPS.

This evening at 7:00 PM at the Dardanelle Senior Center, Dr. Gayle Seymour will discuss her reserach on the Dardanelle Post Office Mural and possible avenues for the restoration of the mural.  The McElroy House will be working with the Historical Society and others to explore ways to use the mural as a path to community-based research and discussions regarding the changing industry in our town, the history of sharecropping, and more.

We hope you’ll come join us.  A few months ago I wrote a column about the mural, which discusses Dr. Seymour’s research.  You can read the whole thing here: http://boileddownjuice.com/the-seed-and-the-story-for-wednesday-july-10-2011/

Or read bellow. Hope to see you there!

The Seed and the Story for August 10, 2011: Dardanelle Post Office Mural

As a young girl, my mother would frequently take me with her to drop off mail at our 1930s era post office in Dardanelle.  She’d always point out the New Deal-era mural hanging above the post master’s door.  A three-panel painting depicting the artist’s rendition of industry in the river valley, the two side panels feature men spinning cotton and loading boxes on boats to send down river.  In the larger, center panel are white and black men working in the cotton fields.  “See those people picking cotton,” my mother would say.  “Your grandparents used to pick cotton in Cardon Bottoms.”   My mother loved that mural, and fostered in me a deep curiosity about the history of family and community which fuels my work today.

I had the opportunity to visit with Dr. Gayle Seymour, an art historian at the University of Central Arkansas, who studies and advocates for the twenty one Depression-era murals across our state.  Whether in the classroom or in the communities, Seymour spreads the word about the importance of these public pieces.  The mural in Dardanelle, she explained, was created by Ludwig Mactarian. Born in 1908 in Smyrna and of Armenian descent, Mactarian escaped the Armenian Genocide before coming to New York City at the age of thirteen.  Like most mural artists who applied for the Federal Art Project, Mactarian was a largely unknown and out of work.  He was hired to create the mural for Dardanelle’s new post office under the Percent for Art model, wherein one percent of the building’s cost was allocated for the creation and installation of community art.  This federal program put artists back to work and is known today as one of the most successful public art projects of all time.  One thousand four hundred murals were completed nationwide, all for installation in public buildings known for their high traffic and everyday use.

The center panel is what makes the Dardanelle mural particularly daring, Seymour explained.  The government specified that all murals focus on regional history, industry and growth.  There was little room for challenging the status quo.  But Mactarian, a man intimately familiar with injustice, focused on the economically poor black and white families whose labor fueled the industry.  At the center of the mural, standing out from the other workers, is a black man carrying a loaded basket of cotton high on his back. From an art historian’s perspective, Seymour explains, the man is a reference to “Atlas supporting the globe.”  The artist’s intent, Seymour argues, “is to show [that] the African American sharecropper carries the weight of the world on his shoulders.”  Mactarian, man who never visited Dardanelle before coming to install the mural, chose to focus on the human lives and stories behind the industry.  His work is one of few in the nation depicting African Americans.

The cotton industry died out in Yell County decades ago, but is still very much a part of our oral history, a subject which needs greater documentation.  Mactarian’s suggestion that million-dollar industries are upheld by those men and women who work the hardest, are paid the least, and have the fewest opportunities, is as true today as when the mural was created.  The industries, workers, and societal structure may have somewhat changed, but the larger economic and social realities remain.

We’re lucky in Dardanelle.  Our post office is still standing and the mural intact, thanks to the hard work of citizens who’ve fought to keep it that way. But the mural needs restoration to prevent decay.  There’s been some talk of forming a Friends of the Mural Group (Seymour’s brilliant idea) to raise money for the restoration and help spread the word about its historical and present-day importance.

The Dardanelle Post Office mural is layered with meaning and this column barely skims the surface. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s looked up at the mural and wondered about—maybe even remembered—what it was like to be a sharecropper.  What are your thoughts on the mural?  Do you have an interest in helping to form a Friends of the Mural group?  Send me an email tomeredithmartin_moats@yahoo.com or leave a comment below. And if you happen to head to downtown Dardanelle today, visit the post office and take another look.  The doors are open twenty-four hours a day.

If you are interested in learning more about the documentation of post office murals across the state,visit the University of Central Arkansas’s Post Office Mural Documentation page by clicking here.

Idea Fair, Meeting at the Historical Society, and garden book!

Had a great meeting at the American Folklore Society Conference and a wonderful discussion at the Idea Fair where I presented ideas about the McElroy House.  I’m very thankful for those who came and shared ideas and suggestions.

This past Monday we also had a great meeting at the Dardanelle Historical Society!  We’re very excited and honored to have so much community support!

Next on the list is getting back to work on our first annual local garden book which will feature local gardens discussing the role of raising their own food, how they acquired their knowledge and why garden remains important to them and the community.  After all, garden may seem like a small thing, but creating food for yourself and your family is one of the most important things a person can do!   If you’re a gardener and want to be a part of the book we’d love to have your help!  Please contact me or leave a message here.

If you’re visititng this site for the first time please know this is very much a work in progress!   We’re working out the kinks as we go along.  Thanks for your support! 

New site, still working out the kinks

Hello everyone!

The Tumblr site that I had set up just wasn’t working like I needed it to.  So I switched over to WordPress.

Please excuse the kinks as I get everything where it needs to be.  Thanks!

McElroy House Presentation at Dardanelle Historical Society October 17th.

McElroy House Booth at Art Walk

Partnership with East Lab at Dardanelle High