FROM THE ARCHIVE: The Demise of the South Side Community Art Center: Part I (2009) and relevant objects from the archive, part one
Pictured above from top to bottom, The Family by Margaret Burroughs and Frederick Douglas (1965) by Bernard Goss
As the launch of this blog arrived with a segment from Faheem's 2009 graduate thesis work The Demise of the South Side Community Art Center, I thought it pertinent to share the remainder of his Demise text in conjunction with a selection of objects from the archive. In many ways, Demise signals the beginnings of this archival project; despite having been more than a year into the archive and having considered myself familiarized with the works derived from his graduate thesis (TDOTSSCAC and beyond), I had been introduced to Faheem's writing on it only recently, a formal outline of Faheem's foundational thinking. Upon my first time reading Demise, I immediately wrote frenzied notes; notes about the meaning of this entire archival process as it relates to the preservation of such a prolific institute and its' presiding legacies, how it becomes that much more complicated as those questions entangle with an artist's concerns of the institutions' future and the consideration of a larger community, an artist whose trajectory and work is so personal to the institution, how this institution may possess psychologies against its' own utility, how artwork becomes something else entirely when these many things converge, these art objects containing extremely complex functions and reasonings which run in parallel to the institutions', my own grappling with understanding my role as a sort of outsider archivist stepping into extremely dense territory, the implications of this outsider archivist now trying to write about this whole thing, and, if we are to remember how loaded of a word 'archive' is, how might that all tie-in or muddy this objective of supporting these legacies for the future?
But this is all neither here nor there. Or, this is all to say I can only continue to attempt to foreground the value that is contained within the archive and in Faheem's continued practice of collecting alongside his artistic practice and past, alongside the institution's own history and enduring existence. For these reasons, I hesitate to include too much of my own narrative - with this post, please enjoy the opening sections of Faheem Majeed's 2009 graduate thesis text, The Demise of the South Side Community Art Center (Part I) part one with a selection of Margaret Burroughs' block prints and South Side Community Art Center ephemera from the archive. For those unfamiliar, this paper is only Part I of his thesis project; Part II was a performance in which he invited the public to the entirety of the South Side Community Art Center's space, complete with programming and conversations with close members of SSCAC's community, some of which has been recorded at the end of this text. As I am finding out during the writing of this post, there are also videos which exist of these conversations; those will appear on the blog as well. However, this post also acts as part one to this Part I, as Demise will be posted in sections on this blog every month (it is quite long).
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| Early SSCAC artifact, c. 1956 |
Demise begins with a poem by the founder of the SSCAC, Margaret Burroughs:
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| Birthday Party by Margaret Burroughs |
The South Side Community Art Center
Founded in 1940, the South Side Community Art Center (SSCAC) is the sole survivor of 110 community art centers created by the Works Progress Administration during President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. As the oldest African-American Art Center in existence the SSCAC has showcased predominantly African-American artists since the 1940’s. When the SSCAC opened its doors in 1941, the venue options were very limited for African-American artists to exhibit their artwork. The SSCAC was dedicated to supporting African-American artists through exhibitions, lectures, classes, and jobs. At its height in the 1940’s, the SSCAC had many well known African-American artists taking part in the organization, including, for example, Charles White, Archibald Motley Jr., Eldzier Cortor, and Gordon Parks (See Appendix I). During the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, many arts institutions began to open their doors for African Americans to participate in their organizations. Premier African-American artists began to distance themselves from the SSCAC because of “bigger and better” opportunities. Soon the SSCAC was no longer known as the premier showplace for African-American artists and began to slowly decline in multiple areas including programming, contemporary relevance, staff, and facilities. Situated in Bronzeville in Chicago, the SSCAC was always fueled by the surrounding community and its artists. During the same time that premier African-American artists were experiencing more recognition from majority institutions, the community surrounding the SSCAC began to decline due to racial tensions and poverty. This community, although currently experiencing rejuvenation, is still challenged by the social issues that often arise in inner city black communities. Black artists have made a conscious decision to invest in Bronzeville and the black arts community through exhibiting in local galleries, volunteering with institutions like the SSCAC and teaching art at local schools. However, despite their presence in the African-American Art community, there is still disparity present within the mainstream arts community in terms of black artists’ representation and access to the canon. The SSCAC has a wonderful opportunity to help these artists achieve recognition and also to assist in rebuilding the cultural relevance of the Bronzeville community (See Appendix II). Named the Acting Executive Director of the SSCAC in 2008, my current work depicts my experiences with the SSCAC in three distinct areas; conflicts and issues within the organization, its resources and history, and the immediate external community surrounding the organization. I have used my artwork as a platform to examine the SSCAC and its surrounding neighborhood and the profound impact that art can have within it, race and its influence on the arts, and curating or curatorial practice as an art form in itself. As an artist and administrator of the SSCAC, my intention is to incorporate my work as acting director and my observations of the institution into my artwork. I also attempt to focus the eye of the “mainstream” onto an institution that has been primarily supported by the African-American community during a time when the necessity, relevance, and existence of culturally specific institutions are being questioned.
Pictured above from top to bottom, Crispus Attucks (2008), Little Girl (2007), and Mahalia (2002) by Margaret Burroughs
My Role at the South Side Community Art Center
My involvement with the SSCAC began with my needs as an emerging artist. While at Howard University, I studied the relevance of the SSCAC, but it wasn’t until I walked in the doors of the SSCAC as an artist in need that I was able to really understand its significant role within the Black Aesthetic. Upon my arrival to Chicago in 2003, I lacked the community and institutional support needed to build a strong art practice. In the tradition of the SSCAC, I was welcomed and given free space to create my artwork. Over the course of 6 years, I transitioned from artist in need to volunteer, then curator, and finally Acting Executive Director. As curator, I collaborated with artists to determine how the SSCAC could use its resources to further develop their practices. That development took on a variety of forms including exhibitions, employment, critical feedback, writing, exposure to peer networks and access to collectors. As an administrator my goal is to re-build the institution in such a way that artists and the community are invested in the success and failure of the institution. Through my role in administration, I have built upon the pre-existing networks and also created new networks with a variety of partners.
Faheem began at the SSCAC as curator in 2005, becoming executive director from 2007 - 2011.
Challenges Within The South Side Community Art Center
Since the SSCAC’s inception, certain challenges that are associated with a culturally specific institution have not been adequately addressed. Due to this avoidance, these issues have become magnified over time. These issues include lack of organizational structure, isolation or exclusionary practices regarding its surrounding community, and paranoia regarding engaging with predominately white institutions and white individuals. Despite the lack of organizational policies and procedures, the SSCAC has managed to survive due to the intervention of key individuals who have provided temporary management and/or funds to sustain the organization. For example, in taking on the role of Acting Executive Director, I was forced to re-create my job description as well as the job descriptions for our staff. In addition, I also recreated art-focused programming for the community and developed the support required to manage that programming. Although the board has indicated that staffing charts and job descriptions existed at some point, they have yet to be located. Additionally, access to the institution’s building, historical documents and permanent collection is often unclear or undefined. Oftentimes an unwelcoming climate is created due to lack of trust of outsiders. Convenient policies are created and enforced to restrain new concepts, activities and volunteers.
“I don’t know the way the SSCAC was. Maybe the original purpose of the SSCAC was to make pretty pictures for the black elite. I would love to see the charter or other founding documents." -- travis
Whether unconscious or intentional, the SSCAC’s strategies for conservation of its history and legacy have been limiting the public’s access to its various resources. Through isolation, the institution has missed out on countless opportunities for new growth. By projecting an unwelcoming atmosphere, the relevance of the institution comes into question. I define this atmosphere as “institutional paranoia”. From the general climate of the organization to often expressed fears, there has been an ongoing concern about what could happen actually preventing what should be happening. This paranoia ranges from fear of destruction of the institution both physically and within history, loss of ownership through the infiltration of white institutions and people, and removal of the art collection by the Government Services Administration (GSA) and the Art Institute of Chicago.
“I used to think the Center was created for African-Americans in particular, so it used to make me a little mad when other folks would use the space. But then I saw the original paperwork and saw it was intended to be a refuge for artists in general. That made me feel more open to other artists using the space. In the end, art is global and it’s better to include rather than exclude.” -- Tony Smith (Appendix XVII)
In my 2009 installation entitled “Two Paintings” (See Appendix III), I make reference to these ideas. I appropriate two paintings from the SSCAC’s collection entitled “My Neighborhood” by Josep Vavak (1940) and an untitled work by an artist named Bryant (1940) and I position them on two painter’s easels from the SSCAC. “My Neighborhood” depicts a street scene at night and has a large tear in the canvas. The Untitled work by Bryant depicts a burning building. Because of the architecture, the building resembles a church. Together these two images function as representations of the institutional paranoia that afflicts the SSCAC. By presenting an image entitled “My Neighborhood” with a large tear in the canvas, I am drawing attention to concerns about the dismantling of the surrounding community due to gentrification (See Appendix IV). The tear is a void that is similar to the numerous vacant lots within the Bronzeville neighborhood. “My Neighborhood” also makes reference to the assumptions many individuals make regarding the quality of caretaking and conservation of the SSCAC’s valuable collection of work. There is a common misconception that many of the SSCAC’s permanent collection works are damaged or ill cared for which diminishes the attention that the institution has actually given to the issue. The untitled image by Bryant makes references to fears of the physical destruction of the institution by both negligence and conspiracy (See Appendix V). The burning building also makes reference to the recent burning down of the Pilgrim Baptist Church that is located in the same neighborhood of Bronzeville. A predominately African-American church, it housed countless valuable artworks and artifacts including original scores of music by Thomas A. Dorsey (instrumental in the development of gospel music) and Mahalia Jackson (regarded as the Queen of Gospel Music). The burning of the church created panic within the SSCAC. Board members were concerned that the SSCAC would be next and created an emergency fundraising committee to remove the collection to a safe place until the building was made safe. Although this fundraising committee never realized its goal, this subject continues to be a focus for the board.
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| Early SSCAC artifact, 1969 |
Appendix I
History
The WPA arts and local history programs were based in a strategy of developing culture as part of efforts to help restore the nation's economy. Democratizing the benefits of the arts by encouraging the participation of all citizens was the rationale for WPA-affiliated arts centers. Although the federal government stimulated the establishment of the South Side Community Art Center, it was the efforts of the community that brought these efforts to fruition. The federal government provided the funds for the remodeling of the center's building and administrative funds for staff and faculty. The community had to pay for the lease and purchase of the building, for utilities, and for art supplies. At the time of Depression this was especially difficult for poor communities. A South Side businessman, Golden B. Darby, oversaw the fund-raising operation, establishing a committee to obtain the required capital and to find an acceptable location. The first meeting of the committee was held on October 25, 1938. Other organizations and businesses were involved in its establishment: the meeting was held at the Urban League's branch office. In attendance were the state director and an official of the Illinois's Federal Art Project, the latter also an art dealer who invited black artists to exhibit in his North Michigan Avenue gallery in downtown Chicago. Also in attendance were members of the Arts Craft Guild, which had been organized in 1932 and "was the only active group of African American visual artists in the community." The Guild's membership included Margaret Taylor, Eldzier Cortor, Bernard Goss, Charles White, William Carter, Joseph Kersey, and Archibald Motley, Jr. Fundraising for the effort involved three years of activity, including "theater performances, card parties, a 'Mile of Dimes' street-corner campaign, lectures and exhibitions held in churches, community centers, schools and clubhouses." The most successful event was the Artists' and Models' Ball held on October 23, 1939 at the Savoy Ballroom. This single event raised the funds to acquire the building for the future Center. Proposals for the design of the community center were received from Hin Bredendieck and Nathan Lerner, "two leading figures from the New Bauhaus School of Design established in Chicago in 1937." Bauhaus is the common term for the Staatliches Bauhaus, an art and architecture school in Germany that operated from 1919 to 1933, and for the approach to design that it developed and taught. The most natural meaning for its name (related to the German verb for "build") is Architecture House. Bauhaus style became one of the most influential currents in Modernist architecture. The interior of the center fused European and American design principles, and provides today one of the few remaining remnants of this style. WPA craftsmen constructed furniture for the building. The South Side Community Art Center opened in December, 1940, with a show of well-known local painters and sculptors: Henry Avery, William Carter, Charles White, Archibald Motley, Jr., Joseph Kersey, Margaret and Bernard Goss, William McBride, among others. Eleanor Roosevelt dedicated it in May, 1941 in a ceremony that was broadcast nationally via the Columbia Broadcasting Radio System network. Celebrities attending included actress Ethel Waters and Howard University professor (and Harlem Renaissance leader) Alain Locke. A Cleveland choir provided the music via a radio link-up. Federal support for the Center shrunk as the nation involved itself in World War II, and by 1943 all federal support had ceased. Although this resulted in the loss of some administrative staff, the center continued to offer programs, funded by well-to-do supporters and events such as the annual ball. European trained, African-American artist Rex Goreleigh took over as administrative director in 1944.
The Center held classes in drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography and crafts. It went beyond the visual arts and offered literary and performing arts programs, as well. Its writers' forum involved Willard Motley, Richard Wright and Gwendolyn Brooks at various times, and the Nat "King" Cole trio played at the center on occasional Saturday nights. By the late 1950s, the Center was "barely intact." Artists again joined, and shows were held, "the only place in Chicago were minority artists could regularly exhibit." By the early 1960s, the efforts of Sylvester Britton and Ramon Price, whose work had been nurtured by the Center when they were youngsters, lead to the revitalization of the Center, aided by the revival of the Artists' and Models' Ball.
Three women were especially responsible for the revival of the Center: Wilhelmina Blanks, Fern Gayden and Grace Thompson. They took over many of the bills of the center, donating money of their own. They sought support from the Johnson Publishing Company, a major Chicago African-American media firm, and added an executive of the company, Herbert Nipson, as board chair. Community artists were asked to submit works to an auction that became an important source of funds for the Center, as well as a means of advertising the works to the Chicago arts community. In the early 1980s, a debate ensued between some board members, who wished to move from the neighborhood that was now in decline, and members of the community. As a result of the reaction of the community against relocation, the center stayed where it had been. Over the years, the Center has acquired an impressive collection of works by African-American artists, the most valuable being those from the WPA era such as Charles White, Henry Avery, Archibald Motley, Jr. and Marian Perkins. Many of these artists trained at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and they incorporated a variety of styles in their works, including European, Asian, Mexican muralists, while adding their own Chicago and Midwestern perspective. Currently the South Side Community Art Center continues to act as a resource for the arts community locally and abroad. As the oldest African American Art Center in existence it takes pride in its past and present contributions to the development and showcasing of emerging and established artists.
Anna M. Tyler, "Planting and Maintaining a 'Perennial Garden,' Chicago's South Side Community Art Center" in INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF AFRICAN AMERICAN ART (11:4), 1994
Appendix II
Appendixes III
Appendixes IV
Appendixes V
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