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A Fortress Where Beauty is Cherished, Protected and Cultivated: The South Side Community Art Center, 1940-1991

Hearne, Auna R
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1439281557

Abstract Details

2015, MA, University of Cincinnati, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Art History.
Since opening in 1940, the South Side Community Art Center (SSCAC) in Chicago, Illinois has continuously met the need for a creative space in the local African American visual arts community. I support this assertion by focusing on three aspects of the institution’s first fifty years: 1) the center as provider of education and access to the visual arts, 2) the center as an inclusive exhibition and market place, and 3) the center as a site for community building. The SSCAC has demonstrated a historical and contemporary commitment to enabling the production and appreciation of art through access and education, as evidenced by an extensive arts curriculum, its alumni and collection, and a strong exhibition history. I analyze how the SSCAC’s programs and exhibitions combatted discriminatory and oppressive practices of Chicago’s museums and academic institutions. Established by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the center and its programs were components of the federal government’s strategy to restore the nation’s economy by employing artists and encouraging community participation in the development of culture. Chicago, especially its predominantly black south side, was a fitting location for an art center as it had been founded as a feasible cradle of creative expression long before the government considered the area. In the first chapter, I provide an abridged history of the forces present in Chicago before the SSCAC came to be a significant African American cultural presence. In chapters two through five, I provide an account of the SSCAC’s inception through its fiftieth anniversary. After the government withdrew fiduciary support in 1944, the Bronzeville community developed many solutions to keep the doors open. The community campaign included the inauguration of the wildly popular and lucrative Artists’ and Models’ Balls. Events like these enabled enable artistic production to continue and allowed patrons and residents to foster an appreciation for art. During the 1950s and early 1960s, Anti-Communist paranoia crippled operations and nearly led to the demise of the SSCAC while the Civil Rights and Black Power movements restored the center as a crucial site for cultural identity and sociopolitical organization and mobilization. In the late 1970s, the mass deindustrialization of Chicago led to a decline of the SSCAC’s host neighborhood and raised concerns about personal and institutional security. The election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 would create and amplify further problems for the SSCAC, as his administration’s policies reduced and cut funding to the arts. However, the community rallied to keep the center open for exhibitions and art classes. In this thesis, I substantiate the significance and vitality of this unique cultural institution with an appraisal of the SSCAC’s exhibition history and programs, as well as the impact of various efforts by the government, corporations, and individuals within the community. The SSCAC was instrumental in the creative development of not only internationally recognized artists such as Gordon Parks and Charles White, but for several generations of Chicago’s black artists, as well. The SSCAC provided an outlet for the creative expressions of a critically marginalized mass.
Theresa Leininger-Miller, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Mikiko Hirayama, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Earl Wright, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
235 p.
Art History
community art center; bronzeville; south side; WPA; FAP; Chicago

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Hearne, A. R. (2015). A Fortress Where Beauty is Cherished, Protected and Cultivated: The South Side Community Art Center, 1940-1991 [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1439281557

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Hearne, Auna. A Fortress Where Beauty is Cherished, Protected and Cultivated: The South Side Community Art Center, 1940-1991. 2015. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1439281557.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Hearne, Auna. "A Fortress Where Beauty is Cherished, Protected and Cultivated: The South Side Community Art Center, 1940-1991." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1439281557

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.