Yoknapatawpha Humanities Center

FAIN: CHA-276854-24

Yoknapatawpha Arts Council (Oxford, MS 38655-4019)
Wayne M. Andrews (Project Director: May 2020 to present)

A 7,680 square foot expansion of Oxford, Mississippi’s 1928 Powerhouse building. The expansion would create classroom and educational space for a range of humanities activities, including a maker space, co-working areas, and community gathering rooms.

The Yoknapatawpha Humanities Center (the Center) will be a 7,680 sq foot expansion of downtown Oxford, MS’ historic 1928 Powerhouse, home to the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council (YAC) since 2006. The Center will serve the nationally-designated Mississippi Hills National Heritage Area, covering 19 counties and portions of 11 more, many among the poorest in Mississippi despite disparate efforts to enliven the creative economy. The Hills region holds sacred Native American burial mounds, epic Civil War battlefields, and evidence of lingering civil rights struggles; they have and can continue to inspire powerful literature and vibrant music, food, and humanities education. The Center will provide for the first time much-needed dedicated physical space to catalyze the constellation of humanities efforts underway here, through new residential writing and co-working makers space and educational and gathering spaces for community placemaking to explore themes of community, inclusion, & empowerment.