Lake View Arkansas Community Center

Lake View, Arkansas is a small farming town settled on the banks of an Oxbow from the Mississippi River. Born out of the New Deal, Lake View was divided by the federal government and parceled out to poor black farmers in the early 20th century. The deal included a plot of land and a one room home in turn for the labor of the land and a percent of the income from the crops produced. The history behind this area is certainly complicated given its roots in slavery, sharecropping, perhaps the bloodiest racial massacre in American history, and then eventual federal abandonment.

The design brief included creating an exhibition dedicated to the people and history of Lake View. I saw this project as a conversation about the relationship between the physical land dominating the region and those who are still there.