Crafting Sanctuaries: Black Spaces of the Great Depression South at MoA+L

Crafting Sanctuaries: Reframing the Great Depression through Black eyes

“Crafting Sanctuaries: Black Spaces of the Black Great Depression South” presents a compelling re-visioning of FSA archive photography at the Museum of Art + Light in Manhattan, Kansas. In partnership with the Art Bridges Foundation, the exhibition foregrounds rarely seen images of Black Southerners fostering refuge, beauty, and community in the depths of economic and racial hardship.

Unearthing overlooked narratives

While the original FSA photo project predominantly showcased white rural America, this exhibition pivots toward intimate scenes of Black life—homes, churches, barbershops, porches—captured by photographers like Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Russell Lee, Marion Post Wolcott, Arthur Rothstein, Ben Shahn, Jack Delano and others, spanning six Southern states

Sanctuaries amid crisis

Curator Tamir Williams describes these scenes as “an examination of the significance of Black Southerners investing in their spatial worlds—and more largely in beauty—while living through this intense period of economic hardship and racial violence.” Those gathering spaces emerge as testimonies of resilience, affirmation, and self-determination

Visceral imagery, lasting impact

Shot in black-and-white, these still photographs—of porches shaded in Mississippi, barbershops buzzing in Atlanta, church interiors and modest tenant houses—resonate with narrative depth. The photographs rehumanise a chapter of American history that has often been rendered invisible.

Key highlights

• Rarely seen FSA photographs focusing on Black Southern communities.
• Private and public interiors as expressions of cultural identity and sanctuary.
• Curatorial recovery of Black perspectives in Depression-era documentation.

“The spaces captured … were not just shelters—they were sanctuaries.” — Tamir Williams, curator

The exhibition runs through March 9, 2026 at the Museum of Art + Light in Manhattan, Kansas, with potential for touring to other venues