AT MSU-WP’S GARNETT LIBRARY, SPONSORED BY OZARKS HERITAGE RESEARCH CENTER
Garnett Library/Ozarks Heritage Research Center
The Old-Time Music, Ozark Heritage Festival will be held Friday and Saturday, June 7 and 8, 2024 In West Plains, MO. This year’s Festival footprint is expanded, encompassing vendors and activities from the east lawn of the Civic Center, up East Main Street and around Court Square. Admission to all festival events is free.
The Garnett Library/Ozarks Heritage Research Center (OHRC) will be open 8 a.m. till 5 p.m. Friday, June 7. Visitors are welcome to tour OHRC to see the progress they’ve made. There’s a new mural in the Center! A 6’x20′ mural, prepared by Farley Lewis Art. Definitely a beautiful addition!
The Ozarks Heritage Research Center is committed to preserving the work of Ozarks scholars and authors. Materials preserved in the collection are meant to serve scholarly researchers, regional history enthusiasts, and students. To this end, the Research Center seeks to collect and make available documents and visual sources that represent the history and cultural heritage of the southern Missouri Ozarks more specifically, the south-central and southeast Missouri Ozarks. The Ozarks Heritage Research Center seeks to play a role in the broader research community by building collections in historical and cultural collections not available anywhere else.
The ultimate goal of the Ozarks Heritage Research Center is to create an archival presence in the southern Missouri Ozarks, one that fills a much-needed niche in professional historical and cultural services and promotes a critical study of the region by students at all education levels, professional scholars from both inside and outside the Ozarks region, and regional history enthusiasts.
HARLIN MUSEUM
The historic Harlin Museum of West Plains at 405 Worcester will be open noon till 4PM both Friday and Saturday. They are displaying the Ozark Heritage Exhibit featuring The L.L. Broadfoot Collection.
This annual exhibit celebrates the work of renowned Ozarks-born artist, Lennis Leonard Broadfoot, with the display of the original art created for his published work, “Pioneers Of The Ozarks”. This collection of drawings and paintings depicts the people, places, and culture of the Ozarks as captured by the artist in the late 1930s – early 1940s and published in book form in 1944.
This particular collection is especially unique in that for each portrait, landscape, and cultural scene depicted of the then-mysterious and remote American region, a written portion accompanies each artwork. Some share tidbits of the conversation had between the artist and subject during their sketch session, revealing the person’s hidden knowledge, values, or beliefs. Yet others convey cultural references of the day and information about nearly lost customs and practices. The combined works are considered one of the artist’s most significant contributions as both a stylized depiction of Ozarks-based culture and an ingenuous first-person depiction of the inscrutable people of the Ozark hills.
The Harlin will also feature their collection of historic quilts and are part of the Festival Quilt Walk.
