A-State Heritage Site Receives $1.2 Million in ANCRC Grant Funding To Complete Project
Grain bin at the Southern Tenant Farmers Museum in Tyronza that is being renovated.
JONESBORO – A grant of $1,272,000 from the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council (ANCRC) will provide the Southern Tenant Farmers Museum (STFM), an Arkansas State University Heritage Site, with the funding needed to complete an ongoing project.
“This grant is for the final phase of a project first funded in 2024. The project will convert the historic grain bin facility across the street from the Southern Tenant Farmers Museum in Tyronza into an educational center for the museum,“ said Dr. Adam Long, executive director of the A-State Heritage Sites.
An ANCRC grant in 2024, totaling $1,916,393, allowed the heritage site to begin the restoration.
“This grant will allow us to finish the project. The city of Tyronza also donated the property to the university for this purpose in 2024,” Long added.
Will Reaves, director of STFM and The Historic Dyess Colony: Johnny Cash Boyhood Home, said the renovated space will be beneficial for the historical site.
“The space will have dual purposes. On one hand, the space will be used for additional exhibitions showcasing agricultural heritage in the Delta and at the same time will be used as an event venue,” Reaves added.
The restoration will allow the museum to use the space for important expansion of museum operations.
“In addition to providing educational space at the museum, this project provides visitor services, such as accessible restroom facilities, that will allow us to host group tours,” Long continued. "This is especially needed because groups that are going to the Johny Cash boyhood home in Dyess, which is 15 minutes away, would like to visit Tyronza, but we currently don’t have services to accommodate them.”
Long and Reaves are grateful for grants such as this one because it not only amplifies what the heritage sites are already doing but provides an added boon to the small town areas in which they exist.
“I believe restoration projects like this are important to small towns such as Tyronza because they allow greater visibility and economic opportunities for them,” Reaves added.
The project is expected to be completed by the summer of 2026.
