La Vaughn Belle Transforms St. Croix’s Architectural Story into Art With Powerful Smithsonian Exhibition

Her life-sized fretwork sculptures, inspired by St. Croix’s post-Fireburn architectural heritage, now stand at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York, celebrating freedom, resilience, and artistic innovation.

The story of artist La Vaughn Belle's latest project began in 2011, when she contemplated buying a piece of property in Christiansted on which two derelict houses stood. It has led, in 2024, to an exhibition at a prestigious museum in New York.