A Sense of Place is an essential aspect of architecture so that a design is maintained. Architecture forms a visual, spatial link between the past, present, and future, becoming a point in the timeline of a place and culture, capturing the history of a place, and telling that story through space.

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A Sense of Place: Architecture, Culture and History in the Arkansas Delta is an Alex Foundation proposed six-day two-week residential workshop.  This proposed workshop will bring together 60, 6th-12th grade(s) educators from across the United States to learn about the important contributions and characteristics of the Arkansas Delta with architecture as a focus.

 

This National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Landmarks of American History and Culture program will engage participants in learning about relevant Arkansas Delta landmarks and buildings of historical and cultural significance, from Prisoners of War internment prisons, cotton gins/commercial buildings, shotgun homes, paranormal homes and plantation homes to the African American, Asian American, Italian American, Native American, and Scottish American heritage that influence these places.  

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Ethnic diversity in the Arkansas Delta has formed a significant part of the past and present Arkansas Delta, which has kept in place, the essentials of the cultures of origin, retaining distinctive identities, as well as intellectual and emotional bonds with traditions.

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Described as the “Deepest of the Deep South” by author and historian William Gatewood in the book, The Arkansas Delta: A Land of Paradox, “the region is an area of land located around the Mississippi River and includes portions of Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

 

The Arkansas Delta contains 15 counties in an area mostly rural with rich, fertile soil.” National Park Service, (2017) The Natural Environment: The Delta and Its Resources. https://www.nps.gov/locations/lowermsdeltaregion/the-natural-environment-the-delta-and-its-resources.htm.