View source for South Side Community Art Center

{{Infobox museum
| name             = South Side Community Art Center
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| image            = File:South Side Community Art Center 1.JPG 
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| caption          = South Side Community Art Center in Bronzeville, Chicago, IL
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| coordinates      ={{coord|41.8246|-87.6231|display=inline,title}}
| established      =1940
| dissolved        =
| location         = 3831 South Michigan Avenue
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The '''South Side Community Art Center''' is a community art center in [[Chicago]] that opened in 1940 with support from the [[Works Progress Administration]]'s [[Federal Art Project]] in [[Illinois]].<ref name="coc-sscac">{{cite web|url=http://webapps.cityofchicago.org/landmarksweb/web/landmarkdetails.htm?lanId=1427|title=Chicago Landmarks - South Side Community Art Center|publisher=City of Chicago|accessdate=25 December 2010}}</ref> Opened in [[Douglas, Chicago#Bronzeville|Bronzeville]] in an 1893 mansion, it became the first black art museum in the United States<ref>Knupfer, p. 2.</ref> and has been an important center for the development Chicago's [[African American art]]ists.<ref name="coc-sscac"/> Of more than 100 [[Federal Art Project#Community Art Center program|community art centers]] established by the WPA, this is the only one that remains open.

The center was awarded [[List of Chicago Landmarks|Chicago Landmark]] status in 1994.<ref name="coc-sscac"/>  Named a "National Treasure" by the [[National Trust for Historic Preservation]] in 2017, it was listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 2018.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/tompfister/2018/09/27/african-american-art-center-in-chicago-achieves-national-register-status/#279e074958f0 |title=African American Art Center In Chicago Achieves National Register Status |last=Pfister |first=Tom |work=Forbes |access-date=2018-09-29 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/weekly-list-20180921.htm |title=Weekly List 20180921 - National Register of Historic Places (U.S. National Park Service) |access-date=2018-09-29 |language=en}}</ref>

==History==
[[File:Eleanor-Roosevelt-South-Side-Art-Center-1941.jpg|thumb|300px|left|[[Eleanor Roosevelt]] at the dedication of South Side Community Art Center (May 7, 1941)]]
Efforts to open a community art center on Chicago's South Side began in 1938. Peter Pollack, a [[Federal Art Project]] official, contacted Metz Lochard, an editor at the [[Chicago Defender]], about having the Art Project sponsor exhibitions of African American artists, who often had trouble securing space to display their work. Pollack, an art dealer, owned a gallery on [[Michigan Avenue (Chicago)|Michigan Avenue]] in [[Chicago Loop|Chicago's Loop]] and had previously displayed the work of African American artists. Lochard arranged a meeting between Pollack and Pauline Kigh Reed, a social worker with extensive connections in the community, and, according to Reed's recollection, she suggested founding an art center. Reed helped arrange an initial meeting with area artists at the South Side Settlement House at 32nd Street and Wabash Avenue. Businessman Golden Darby, chairman of the board of the Settlement House, became chair of the Sponsoring Committee of the proposed South Side Community Art Center.<ref name="A Guide to Black Chicago's Hidden Archives">{{cite web|title=Mapping the Stacks|url=http://mts.lib.uchicago.edu/collections/findingaids/index.php?eadid=MTS.sscac}}</ref>

Darby chaired the first official meeting of the Sponsoring Committee on October 25, 1938 at the offices of the Chicago Urban League. In addition to Darby, Pollack, and other organizers of the Sponsoring Committee, the meeting was attended by members of the Arts Crafts Guild, a group of Chicago-based African American artists organized in 1932 which included [[Margaret Taylor-Burroughs]], [[Eldzier Cortor]], Bernard Goss, [[Charles White (artist)|Charles White]], William Carter, [[Joseph Kersey]], and [[Archibald Motley]] Jr. George G. Thorpe, the State Director of the Federal Art Project of Illinois, informed the group that the FAP's community art center program would provide an administrative staff, faculty, and renovation funds for a center if the community could raise funds for the purchase of a building and the costs of utilities and supplies.

The following year was spent organizing and raising funds for the center, with efforts ranging from membership drives and street corner collections (including Margaret Burroughs's famous "Mile of Dimes" on South Parkway, (now Martin Luther King Drive) to benefit parties and lectures by speakers including [[Augusta Savage]]. The most successful of these events, the Artists' and Models' Ball held at the Savoy Ballroom on October 23, 1939, became an annual tradition.

Among its alumni are [[Charles White (artist)|Charles White]], [[Bernard Goss]], [[George Neal (artist)|George Neal]], [[Eldzier Cortor]], [[Gordon Parks]], [[Archibald Motley]], [[Richard Hunt (sculptor)|Richard Hunt]]<ref name="Richard Hunt Monograph">{{cite book |last1=Introduction by Courtney J. Martin. Text by John Yau, Jordan Carter, LeRonn Brooks. Interview by Adrienne Childs. |title=Richard Hunt |date=2022 |publisher=GREGORY R. MILLER & CO. |isbn=9781941366448 |url=https://www.artbook.com/9781941366448.html}}</ref> and [[Margaret Burroughs]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/73.html|title=South Side Community Art Center|accessdate=2007-10-25|encyclopedia=The Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago|year=2005|publisher=Chicago Historical Society}}</ref>

===Building===

Completed in 1893, at 3831 S. [[Michigan Avenue (Chicago)|Michigan Avenue]], the [[Georgian Revival]]-style building designed by architect L. Gustav Hallberg, originally served as a residence for [[grain trade|grain merchant]] George A. Seaverns Jr.<ref name="coc-sscac"/>

In 1940, the by then vacant [[brownstone]] building was selected as the site for the planned community art center and was purchased for about $8,000<ref name="UNCAP"/> with funds raised by the community.<ref>Cohn, p. 108.</ref><ref name="Knupfer, p. 67">Knupfer, p. 67.</ref><ref name="history"/> The building is sometimes referred to as the Comiskey Mansion,<ref name="Knupfer, p. 67"/><ref name="Cohn, p. 109">Cohn, p. 109.</ref> and it was described as the former home of [[Charles Comiskey]] by [[Eleanor Roosevelt]] in her newspaper column after she took part in the dedication of the South Side Community Art Center.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.gwu.edu/~erpapers/myday/displaydoc.cfm?_y=1941&_f=md055882 |title=My Day |last=Roosevelt |first=Eleanor |author-link=Eleanor Roosevelt |date=May 9, 1941 |website=The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project |publisher=[[George Washington University]]|access-date=2015-11-01 |quote=The Art Center is situated in the old home of Charles Comiskey, who was once a great baseball magnate. It had become a rooming house before the South Side Community Art Center had bought it a year ago.}}</ref> According to UNCAP, the Uncovering New Chicago Archives Project, the house belonging to Comiskey was further south on Michigan Avenue.<ref name="UNCAP">{{cite web|url=http://uncap.lib.uchicago.edu/view.php?eadid=MTS.sscac|title=Guide to the Archives of the South Side Community Art Center, 1938-2008|date=September 2009|publisher=UNCAP|accessdate=25 December 2010}}</ref> The community paid for the lease and purchase of the building, for utilities, and for art supplies.<ref name="history"/> The federal government helped to stimulate the establishment of the center via support from the Works Progress Administration's [[Federal Art Project]].<ref name="Knupfer, p. 67"/> They provided administrative funds for staff and faculty and funds for the remodeling of the building.<ref name="history"/> The interior was remodeled in the [[New Bauhaus]]-style, and the centre opened unofficially for its first classes on December 15, 1940.<ref name="coc-sscac"/><ref name="UNCAP"/><ref name="history">{{cite web |title=History & Archives |url=https://www.sscartcenter.org/about-us/building-legacy/ |website=South Side Community Art Center |access-date=24 April 2024}}</ref><ref name="Cohn, p. 109"/> The opening was accompanied by an inaugural exhibition of paintings by local black artists including Charles Davis, [[Charles Wilbert White|Charles White]], Bernard Goss, William Carter, [[Eldzier Cortor]], Charles Sebree, [[Archibald Motley]] Jr., amongst others.<ref name="Cohn, p. 109"/> The interracial faculty of art instructors included Davis, White, Goss, Carter, [[Morris Topchevsky]], Si Gordon, Max Kahn, and [[Todros Geller]].<ref name="Cohn, p. 110">Cohn, p. 110.</ref> Lessons were free and included oil painting, drawing, composition, water color, sculpture, lithography, poster design, fashion illustration, interior decoration, silk screen, weaving, and hooked rug-making.<ref name="Cohn, p. 109"/> By March 1941, 13,500 people had attended classes, exhibitions, and events at the center.<ref name="Cohn, p. 110"/> [[First Lady of the United States|First Lady]] [[Eleanor Roosevelt]] dedicated the facility May 7, 1941, in a ceremony that broadcast nationwide<ref>{{cite news |date=May 8, 1941 |title=Mrs. Roosevelt Dedicates South Side Art Center |url=http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1941/05/08/page/15/article/mrs-roosevelt-dedicates-south-side-art-center |newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]] |access-date=2015-11-02 }}</ref> on [[CBS Radio]].<ref name="UNCAP"/><ref name="Cohn, p. 110"/>

====Landmark status====
The center earned [[List of Chicago Landmarks|Chicago Landmark]] status on June 16, 1994.<ref name="coc-sscac"/>  In 2017, the center was named a "National Treasure" by the [[National Trust for Historic Preservation]].<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-met-south-side-community-arts-treasure-20171106-story.html |title=South Side Community Arts Center named National Treasure |last=Bowean |first=Lolly |work=chicagotribune.com |access-date=2017-11-11 |language=en-US}}</ref>  The building was listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 2018.

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
*{{cite journal|url=http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/156|title=ART FRONTS: VISUAL CULTURE AND RACE POLITICS IN THE MID-TWENTIETH-CENTURY UNITED STATES|last=Cohn|first=Erin P.|date=2010-05-17|journal=Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. Paper 156|publisher=University of Pennsylvania|accessdate=25 December 2010}}
*{{cite book|last=Knupfer|first=Anne Meis|title=The Chicago Black Renaissance and women's activism|year=2006|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=978-0-252-07293-2}}
*Anna M. Tyler, "Planting and Maintaining a 'Perennial Garden,' Chicago's South Side Community Art Center" INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF AFRICAN AMERICAN ART (11:4), 1994

==External links==
*[http://www.sscartcenter.org/ Official site]
*[https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/surveys/chicago/south-side-community-art-center/archives-south-side-community-art-center Archives of the SSCAC]- Smithsonian Institution
*[http://luna.lib.uchicago.edu/luna/servlet/uofclibmgr2~4~4/ South Side Community Art Center Digital Collection] - UChicago Library
*[https://savingplaces.org/places/sscac#.Wgda0o-cG00 South Side Community Art Center] National Trust for Historic Preservation
*[https://interactive.wttw.com/art-design-chicago/south-side-community-art-center South Side Community Art Center] video, WTTW Chicago

{{Chicago}}
{{Chicago Landmark cultural venues}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:African-American history in Chicago]]
[[Category:Douglas, Chicago]]
[[Category:Houses completed in 1893]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in Chicago]]
[[Category:Chicago Landmarks]]
[[Category:Georgian Revival architecture in Illinois]]
[[Category:Works Progress Administration in Illinois]]
[[Category:Federal Art Project]]
[[Category:Arts centers in Illinois]]
[[Category:Art museums and galleries in Chicago]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Chicago]]
[[Category:Cultural centers in Chicago]]