In conjunction with the opening of our fall gallery exhibition “Treasured Chests: 19th Century Furniture Made by Northwest Arkansas Craftsmen,” Historic Cane Hill welcomes Jerome Bias on August 16, 2025 for a fun day with educational activities.

Schedule:

10 am – 11 am: Woodworking Basics Demonstration
This demonstration offers kids of all ages a chance to see what tools enslaved and later freed African American craftsmen used. Attendees will get the chance to handle the tools and use them. In the process, participants will learn sawing, drilling, and planning skills.

11 am – 12 pm: Dovetails & Saws Woodworkers Tool Talk/Demonstration
This Tool Talk will be geared toward adults with questions about techniques and processes that the craftsmen used in creating the furniture that is in the exhibition. Participants will learn about different types of joinery such as mortise and tenons, dovetail joinery, and edge jointed boards.

12 pm – 1 pm: Hotdog lunch - provided by Historic Cane Hill and cooked by incoln Masons #615

1 pm – 2:30 pm: The Persistence of Hope: Seeing ourselves in the Decorative Arts Lecture
Historically the southern decorative arts have included African Americans at a limited level. The presentation will follow the journey that Jerome Bias has taken exploring southern material culture to explore the relationships that his enslaved ancestors and their descendants have with southern decorative arts and southern material culture.

Jerome Bias, of Graham, North Carolina, is a furniture maker and cultural heritage practitioner, specializing in the reproduction of early Southern furniture using period techniques. Bias currently makes reproductions of furniture from places where his family was enslaved. He is exploring the question: How did his ancestors handle the trauma of enslavement and yet maintain the ability to have hope and love?

The events are free to attend, but registration is required.

This project was funded in part by a grant from the Black History Commission of Arkansas

Thank you to Programs Sponsors:
Presenting: Paula Irwin
Presenting Media: CitiScapes Magazine & KUAF
Platinum: Ozarks ECC & Ozarks Go, Kinco Constructors, Legacy National Bank
Gold: Farm Bureau, Curtis Moore