NEW “CHAT HEAP” INSTALLATION BY ARTIST CHUCK DAVIS INVITES REFLECTION ON THE QUAPAW NATION AT OZARK BEER COMPANY

Renowned Ozark photographer and curator brings the environmental legacy of Picher, Oklahoma, to a fence wall display in downtown Rogers.

WHAT — A new public art installation has elevated the outdoor beer garden at Ozark Beer Company. Conceptualized by independent curator, photographer, and visual artist Chuck Davis, the Chat Heap Fence Wall Display elevates “chat”—gravel-like mining tailings—into a tactile monument that bridges chic community spaces with one of the most sobering environmental chapters in American history.

The installation expands Davis’s deep photographic exploration of the Ozarks. Here, his public installation describes a complex event in the history of Quapaw Nation, while inviting both reflection and reforms.

Why it Matters — From Picher to Rogers: The Weight of the Stone

The installation relays the history of a depopulated town: Picher, Oklahoma. Once the richest zinc and lead mining center in America—fueling the munitions of two World Wars—Picher was left devastated by the extraction. Mining corporations departed, leaving behind 70 million tons of “chat”—cancerous, toxic tailings—choking Quapaw Nation’s leased lands, filling children’s sandboxes, and eventually forcing a massive federal Superfund evacuation. Picher ceases to exist as a community, but the chat remains, and remediation moves slowly.

As an artist with over 50 years, Davis uses his work to confront “complications in representation” and multi-generational impacts of forced relocation and environmental migration. By bringing the story Chat Heap into the vibrant, revitalized space of downtown Rogers, Davis asks viewers to look closer at the soil beneath them and the cost at which our modern world was built.
“Chuck (Davis) reimagined an ordinary grey fence as a place for showing art and we’re grateful for him turning that space into one for reflection.” said Marty Sutter, Marketing Director of Ozark Beer Company. “The Arkansas Department of Transportation estimates 12,000 cars travel past this stretch of Arkansas St. each day, which is nearly double the number of visitors to Michelangelo’s David.”

About the Artist

Chuck Davis is an independent curator, photographer, and visual artist holding an MFA in Visual Arts from Lesley Art + Design. Working across mediums from large-format film and historic tintypes to community engagement public installations, Davis’s ongoing work seeks to reverse cultural stigmas surrounding the Ozarks and illuminate the complex social messages embedded in its landscape. His preservation advocacy and artistic vision recently earned him the individual Art Fellowship grant from the Arkansas Arts Council.

Exhibition Details

The Chat Heap fence wall display will hang throughout 2026 in the outdoor beer garden at Ozark Beer Company, located at 109 N. Arkansas Street in downtown Rogers. The space is open to the public during normal taproom hours.

For more information on the project and to view the expansive portfolios of Ozark photography by Davis, visit https://chuckdavis.art/