William Grant Still Arts Center
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William Grant Still Arts Center (WGSAC)
The William Grant Still Arts Center is located off South Westview Street in the West Adams neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1977, the community arts center was established with the leadership efforts of Councilman David S. Cunningham Jr. in collaboration with the local West Adams community. The building was developed in 1929 to for the City of Los Angeles Fire Department Engine Company NO. 67. In 1976, the building was renovated to serve as a community arts facility of the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. Since the centers opening, WGSAC has offered music and art classes for adults and youth, an exhibition space, concerts, and space for community meetings and gatherings for its surrounding neighborhood.[1]
History
Originally built in 1926, an old fire station was refurbished by the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) in cooperation with the neighborhood and local Council District 10.[2]
It was transformed into a community arts center with a central exhibition space in the main rotunda, exhibition and meeting rooms, offices, kitchen, and outdoor patio and amphitheater.
Dr. William Grant Still wrote over 150 compositions, including operas, ballets, symphonies, chamber works, and arrangements of folk themes, spirituals, as well as instrumental, choral and solo works. "Troubled Island," the opera Dr. Still wrote with a libretto by Langston Hughes, is commemorated on the south side of the building in the alleyway in a 2003 mural created by artist Noni Olabisi, with assistance from Brother Boko.[3] Dr. Still – who coined the term “art music” – considered and used music as a means to achieve cross cultural understanding.[4]
Born on May 11, 1895 in Woodville, Mississippi, William Grant Still was an American composer and conductor and the first African American to conduct a professional symphony orchestra in the United States. Although he was a prolific composer of operas, ballets and symphonies his Afro-American Symphony (1931) was his signature work.[5] Still’s mother and grandmother raised him in Little Rock, Arkansas. He studied medicine at Wilberforce University, Ohio, before turning to music. He first studied composition at Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin, Ohio, then under the conservative George Whitefield Chadwick at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, and later under Edgard Varèse during the latter’s most radical avant-garde period. The diversity of Still’s musical education was extended when, in the 1920s, he worked as an arranger for the bandleader Paul Whiteman and for the blues composer W.C. Handy. Early orchestral works included Darker America (1924) and From the Black Belt (1926) for chamber orchestra. Dr. Still’s activism shone in his work, notably the Afro-American Symphony; the ballet Sahdji (1930), set in Africa and composed after extensive study of African music, and Lenox Avenue (1937); and the operas The Troubled Island (1938; produced 1949), with a libretto by Langston Hughes, and Highway No. 1, U.S.A. (produced 1963 and 1977). Still became the first African American to conduct a major symphony orchestra, when he led the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1936.[6] In 1939 he married Verna Arvey, settling in Los Angeles. He died December 3, 1978, in Los Angeles, CA.
Exhibitions
The center’s calendar operates in four quarters, each one dedicated to specific cultural themes and artistic disciplines.
The annual Black Doll Show is one of WGSAC’s most significant and longest standing programs. The annual exhibitions serve to address racial stereotypes and autonomously empower marginalized communities through art.[7]
The WGSAC Annual Black Doll Show
The Annual Black Doll Show is one of the longest running exhibits of the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and is also one of the longest running Black Doll Exhibits in the United States.[8]
For nearly 40 years, the William Grant Still Arts Center has presented the Black Doll Show, an original annual exhibition of Black dolls from artists, collectors, and the local community. It has been a platform to showcase the ongoing traditions and diversity of doll-making, practices which can be traced back to African doll making both currently and prior to the period of enslavement in the Americas.The Black Doll Show is also informed by the Community Arts and Assemblage Arts movements of the 1970s and 80s.
The curated exhibitions have been an important site of discourse on issues such as identity and representation, health and spirituality, HIV/AIDS prevention, superheroes, gentrification, African-American leisure, and gender.
Black Doll Show Exhibitions
2022 – 42nd Annual - Fun and Games
2021 – 41st Annual - Black Doll Magic
2020 – 40th Annual - All Dolled Up: A 40 Year Celebration of the WGSAC Annual Black Doll Show
2019 – 39th Annual - Psychedollia
2018 – 38th Annual - Double Dutch: A Celebration of Black Girlhood
2017 – 37th Annual - Jubilee, Celebrations in Color[9]
2016 – 36th Annual - Paper Plastic Ceramic and Wood
2015 – 35th Annual - Trench Art Retrospective: The War Against HIV/AIDS – Women Of The African Diaspora In The Trenches
2014 – 34th Annual - A League Supreme
2013 – 33rd Annual - Dolls Gone Wild
2012 – 32nd Annual - Space is the Place
2011 – 31st Annual - The Politics of Imagery
2010 – 30th Annual - The 3Rs - Remember, Recycle, Revive
2009 – 29th Annual - I’ve got a Story to Tell
2008 – 28th Annual - Dolls of Color Around the World
2006 – 26th Annual - Lemons to Lemonade
2005 – 25th Annual - Lemons to Lemonade
2004 – 24th Annual - From the Cotton Fields to the New Millennium
2003 – 23rd Annual - A Salute to Doll Artists
2002 – 21st Annual - A Salute to Doll Artists
2000 – 20th Annual - Futuristic Dreams and Fantasies
1999 – 19th Annual - A Century of African American Dolls: The Pride and Politics of Portrayal[10]
1998 – 18th Annual - Dolls: Social-Political Images, Collectibles & Toys[11]
1997 – 17th Annual - Past to Present
1996 – 16th Annual - Adventures in Dollhouse Land
1995 – 15th Annual Black Dolls Are Maker’s Wonder
1994 – 14th Annual - Doll as Companion, Image and Treasure[12]
1993 – 13th Annual – Handmade Dolls[13]
1992 – 12th Annual - Moving Parts - Puppet Images of the African Diaspora
1991 – 11th Annual – Dolls: Past and Present[14]
1990 – 10th Annual - Black Dolls of the World: 10th Anniversary
1989 – 9th Annual - Symmetry - A Comparison of Dolls and Puppets
1988 – 8th Annual - The Genius of the Black Doll - From Slavery to the Twenty First Century[15]
1986 – 6th Annual - Puppets and Puppeteers, The African American Image
1985 – 5th Annual - Time Capsule of Dolls[16]
1984 – Historical Odyssey of Black Dolls
1983 – 3rd Annual – It’s A Small World
1982 – 2nd Annual – Black Doll Exhibit
1981 – 1st Annual – African American Dolls[17][18]
Black Composer’s Series
The Black Composer's series celebrates the life and work of a selected African-American composer.
The exhibits are complemented by panel discussions, concerts, workshops and other programs.
The series is staged in conjunction with The William Grant Still Arts Center’s African-American Heritage Education Program, which focuses on teaching art skills, cultural history, and music through practice and playing experience to beginning and intermediate students of all ages via the works of groundbreaking musical innovators in the tradition of our namesake, Dr. William Grant Still.
Black Composer’s Exhibitions[19]
2020 – Spanish Grease – Willie Bobo
2019 – Music is Art, Music is Philosophy, Music is History: The Legacy of Dr. William Grant Still 2018 – How the West Got Funked Up!
2017 – Nearly Gone Gal: The Rescued Archives of Nellie Lutcher
2016 – So What! The Artistry of Miles Davis
2015 – Love You Madly – A Portrait of Duke Ellington
2014 – I Got My Pride – The Blues Tales of Lead belly
2013 – Arkestry of the Cosmos – The Universe Language of Sun Ra
2012 – Deeds Not Words – The Life and Work of Max Roach & Abbey Lincoln
2011 – A New Day – Nina Simone
2010 – The High Priest of Bop – The Jazz Odyssey of Thelonious Monk
2009 – Charles Mingus
Fall Exhibition Series[20]
Fall Exhibition series feature additional exhibitions and programming that cater to the interests of the community.
The exhibits are complemented by panel discussions, concerts, workshops and other programs.
Fall Exhibitions
2019 – Legacy: Rocking the Nation (RTN), 30 Years of Creativity[21]
2018 – Making the Divine from the Disposable: Teresa Tolliver[22]
2017 – A Woman’s Place
2016 – Intersections: Valena Broussard Dismukes[23]
2014 – Return of the Mecca: The Art of Islam and Hip-Hop[24]
2013 – Tequio Aqui, Tequio Alla[25]
2012 – Dragon’s Flight[26]
2011 – Hell No! We Won’t Go!: 50 Years of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
Educational Programs
The William Grant Still Art Center began offering programs in 1979. These educational programs include art, movement and music classes for seniors, adults, teens, children, including early childhood education.[27]
Professionally-produced exhibitions that include the annual Black Doll Show and the African-American Composers Exhibition are paired with an education series that displays, archives and teaches music and art through the life and work of a selected composer.
Art & Jazz Summer Day Camp
Art and Jazz Summer day camp for ages 3-12, jazz-based ensemble instruction, partnerships with teachers at local schools and universities; and readings, film screenings, and concerts throughout the year.
Community Workshops
The WGSAC offers community workshops that incorporate hands-on art instruction and the preservation of long-standing community traditions and cultural history of the West Adams neighborhood. The workshops range from drawing, arts & craft, percussion, keyboard, tap dancing, and physical exercise.
In addition, the WGSAC also offers doll-making workshops to share the tradition of doll-making practices and to continue the legacy of doll-makers across the diaspora.
West Adams Collectors Club
In 2015, the WGSAC and community members collaborated with professional archivists and local historians to develop West Adams Collectors Club, which focused on archiving grassroots histories and legacy residents of the West Adams neighborhood. The West Adams Collectors Club took place over the course of eight Saturdays from March 14th - May 2nd, 2015, and was followed by a six-week exhibition called West Adams Collectors Club: Collecting, Archiving, and Exhibiting Your Own Cultural History which featured the archival collections developed by the workshop participants. The exhibition showcased stories and legacies across multiple generations to encourage younger audiences to collect and preserve their history.
Directors
Amitis Motevalli (current)
Joyce Maddox
James Burks
Kamaal Doud
Hakim Ali[17]
See also
City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs
References
- ^ "WGSAC History". The William Grant Still Arts Center. 2012-12-05. Retrieved 2023-07-21.
- ^ "The William Grant Still Community Arts Center: A model for the 80s" (PDF). Los Angeles Fire Department Historical Archives. 1980. p. 2.
- ^ "WGSAC History". The William Grant Still Arts Center. 2012-12-05. Retrieved 2023-07-23.
- ^ "William Grant Still Arts Center". Department of Cultural Affairs. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
- ^ Oja, Carol J. “‘New Music’ and the ‘New Negro’: The Background of William Grant Still’s ‘Afro-American Symphony.’” Black Music Research Journal 12, no. 2 (1992): 145–69. https://doi.org/10.2307/779440.
- ^ "William Grant Still, 1895-1978". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
- ^ "Annual Black Doll Show". The William Grant Still Arts Center. 2012-12-06. Retrieved 2023-07-23.
- ^ "William Grant Still Arts Center". Department of Cultural Affairs. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
- ^ "Black Doll Exhibition is Back!". LA Sentinel. January 18, 2018.
- ^ "The 19th Annual Black Doll Exhibition Comes to L.A". LA Sentinel. December 30, 1995. pp. B5.
- ^ "Black Doll Show on to March 1 (18th Annual Show)". LA Sentinel. February 18, 1999. pp. A3.
- ^ "Black Dolls Are Maker's Wonder (14th Annual Show)". LA Sentinel. February 16, 1995. pp. C4.
- ^ "Black Doll Exhibit at William Still Center". LA Sentinel. January 12, 1993. pp. A10.
- ^ "Dolls: Past and Present at Annual Black Doll Show". LA Sentinel. December 12, 1991. pp. A16.
- ^ Ziaya, Christine (February 20, 1988). "Exhibits Celebrate Work of Black Artists". The Los Angeles Times Newspaper. p. 4.
- ^ "Doll Collection on View at Still Center". LA Sentinel. December 10, 1985. pp. F10.
- ^ a b "African-American Artists of Los Angeles: Cecil Fergerson". www.oac.cdlib.org. Retrieved 2023-07-25.
- ^ Jones, Kellie (2017). South of Pico: African American Artists in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s. Duke University Press. p. 172. ISBN 978-0-8223-6164-0.
- ^ "African-American Composers Series". The William Grant Still Arts Center. 2012-12-06. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
- ^ "Fall Exhibition". The William Grant Still Arts Center. 2019-11-07. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
- ^ "Legacy: Rocking the Nation (RTN), 30 Years of Creativity". Department of Cultural Affairs. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
- ^ Center, William Grant Still Arts (2018-09-11). "WGSAC Presents: Teresa Tolliver "Making The Divine From The Disposable" 10/6/18 – 11/17/18 Free Admission". The William Grant Still Arts Center. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
- ^ Center, William Grant Still Arts (2016-09-15). "Intersections: Valena Broussard Dismukes". The William Grant Still Arts Center. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
- ^ "Home". Return of the Mecca. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
- ^ Center, William Grant Still Arts (2013-09-11). "Tequio Aqui, Tequio Allá (Tequio Here, Tequio There) // October 5-November 23 // Opening Concert: Saturday, October 5, 3-6pm". The William Grant Still Arts Center. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
- ^ Motevalli, Ami (September 20, 2012). "Dragon's Flight Exhibition Media Alert" (PDF). Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles.
- ^ "City Times Billboard". The Los Angeles Times. May 16, 1993. p. 238.