Where’s The African American Cultural Center?
Located in University City and St. Louis, the Delmar Loop is a vibrant street. New venues have been added like The Pagent, Pin-Up Bowl, Moonrise, Regional Arts Commission and the St. Louis African American Cultural Center. As of last Saturday the Visit the Loop website says the latter is “opening in 2011”:
It’s 2012 and the center is not open and nothing appears to be happening at the proposed site, the project was proposed in 2006.
In 2011 the project DeclareItArt.com posted the following on the wall and online:
This piece is designed to serve as a metaphor for the innumerable empty promises laid at the feet of a once-subjugated minority. In building this non-building, a wooden barrier with a large, ostentatious sign reading “African American Cultural Center,” the artist references an uncomfortable truth.Not unlike the post-emancipation pledge of 40 acres and a mule, this work evokes the United States’ propensity to trade actual product or progress for the emptiness of ‘good intentions.’The wall, complete with a quintessentially multicultural mural, satirically espouses a commitment to a Center the community is unable or unwilling to construct. A microcosm of minority race and religious relations, this piece embodies both the best and worst of “mainstream” American priorities.Other “forever-under construction” projects proposed by the artist include a “Native Americans: Here’s Colorado Back” installation and a thrilling piece that “promises” to allow the Iraqi Army to invade and “liberate” Washington D.C., with the guarantee of a meager and underpowered defense from the U.S. military.
Interesting statement.
— Steve Patterson
Interesting that Denver has funded things like http://aarl.denverlibrary.org/index.html and http://www.denver.org/what-to-do/attractions/detail?memid=12442 with a population that is less than 10% African American while we can’t fund something that reflects the majority of our local population. Could it be pandering or could it be that history isn’t all that important when poverty looms as a bigger challenge?
When/if the African American community has the will to open a cultural center here, it will get done. Without knowing how/why the center was promised, it’s just a game of blame-shifting to suggest the center is another example of “40 acres”.
Could it not just be a problem of location/funding/liens/disorganization? (any or all of those)
Probably the biggest challenge has been the economy and getting donations.
I’m sure Martin Luther King would have advised black people to wait around for white people to do it for them, right? The allusion to the 40 acres and a mule is ridiculous, there are now black people who are billionaires and multi-millionaires. Failure to find the money is purely the fault of the organizers.
I agree chuck….we don’t know. could be funding, could be support, could be inner turmoil. I do like the painted walls though (minus the stupid graffitti). What I do not like are the comments made by Declareitart and supposedly the artist. Perhaps they can tell us why they are supposing that the community is “unable or unwilling to construct”….and at the same time they can tell us how many tax dollars they recieved or asked for to do the other “projects”. And well some projects maybe considered art by some….with names like those…..well, perhaps the artist should go to Iraq.
The problem is leadership. It isn’t getting done because no one has stepped up to do organize the necessary fundraising, corporate sponsorship, grants etc. Also, the cultural center should not be in The Loop.
I would prefer a downtown location, but if not, it should be built in Grand Center where it was supposed to go originally.
Someone had to step up at one time to gather and formailze the idea, find location, etc….so something had to happen between putting the wall up…..and today.
at this point, i don’t think anyone cares anymore….its just not that important in the grand scheme. we are in a time when we are being bogged down by so much horror in life. its hard to find the energy to care about anything except one’s self anymore. its just too hard.
I think the issue really is the fact that they’ve put a mural of the Cultural Center up in such a prominent location, and it’s been there untouched for years. The mural is basically an explicit promise that they are going to build something there, and to leave it up indefinitely, with no progress being made, is simply disingenuous. The Declare It Art statement is not meant to be taken literally, instead it points out what an easy, accidental metaphor this mural makes.