Herb Williams poses in this 1992 photo:
His vision for the Community Folk Art Center has been realized with the
gallery’s current location at 805 E. Genesee St. (below).
The history of
the Community Folk Art Center (CFAC) is closely linked to Herb
Williams, its director from 1972, when the gallery opened its doors, to
his death in 1999. He was an arts administrator involved with finances
and organizational matters, a community advocate who labored to
establish and maintain CFAC in an urban neighborhood, a curator who
presented many exhibitions. The gallery hosted thematic shows,
exhibited works by nationally known artists such as James Van Der Zee, and worked extensively with local and emerging artists.
This fall, CFAC salutes Williams with an exhibition, Founding Visionaries: Herb Williams and Jack White,
commemorating him and showcasing his own artworks. One segment of the
show relates directly to Williams. There’s a self-portrait as well as a
Benny Andrews engraving depicting the longtime director. In addition, a
piece by Jack White, a close friend and colleague, pays homage to
Williams. The artworks created by Andrews and White emphasize Williams’
ties to a network of artists, some living in Central New York, others
situated around the country.
In fact, White, 77, now lives in Austin,
Texas. But he feels a strong link to Syracuse nonetheless and is proud
that his legacy here includes the CFAC, originally known as the
Community Folk Art Gallery. “The gallery exhibited things that people
in Syracuse hadn’t seen or heard of,” he says. “The reaction was
ecstatic, for sure. People were just dying for something like this,
especially kids. It was one of those storefront places, with nice
windows, so you could see what was going on inside. The idea was to
have people walk by and see what was on the walls, and then they’d want
to come in and see the work.”
In its 26 years, the CFAC has occupied
four locations. Two of them were on South Salina Street near Wood
Avenue before the gallery moved to 2223 E. Genesee St., where it stayed
until moving to 805 E. Genesee St. a few years ago. While the CFAC has
always been a division of Syracuse University’s African-American
Studies program, the latest move also brought the gallery under the
Connective Corridor umbrella and into the Coalition of Museums and Art
Centers (CMAC) at SU.
“Syracuse University has been a super
ally with the Community Folk Art Center, even from its inception,”
White notes. “Herb was part of the African-American Studies department
at SU, and there were always grants and funds directly from the
university that helped the gallery along.”
Says Jeff Hoone, executive director of
CMAC, “With Chancellor {Nancy} Cantor arriving and with her vision for
the university as a promoter of the public good that needs to reach
out, along with her interest in the arts, that created the opportunity
to address the longstanding needs the CFAC had, especially at their old
space. With her encouragement they looked for a new location that was a
more appropriate space for them.”
That new location, near Syracuse Stage,
is also closer to the University Hill. “It’s a great space,” Hoone
adds. “It’s very visible, the galleries are much improved, they have
additional space for classrooms, the ceramic program. It allows them to
do a lot of things they’ve done in the past, but even better and more
visible.”
White is also impressed with the new
space. “It’s absolutely spectacular,” he says. “it’s a great space, it
does exactly what Herb wanted it to do. It’s by no means a storefront
anymore, but it’s right up against the sidewalk. You walk by, you can’t
help but see what’s on the walls. It’s as good a gallery space as I’ve
seen in Syracuse.”
Inside you will see the latest exhibit,
which includes a photo, taken sometime during the 1970s, that shows
Williams welcoming a group of schoolchildren to CFAC when it was
located on South Salina Street. He believed strongly in the gallery
connecting with nearby neighborhoods and with youth. “Art is a hard
sell, even today,” White continues. “People don’t look at it as bread
and butter. To get kids involved in art at an early age was part of
Herb’s vision, to make art seem a bit more fashionable to them.” During
his tenure as director, Williams oversaw after-school programs for
children and an annual competition showcasing works by teenagers.
Those activities were very much part of the gallery’s public face. “The CFAC is one of those organizations
that has contributed significantly to the cultural climate of
Syracuse,” Hoone says. Williams’ own artistic talents, however, stayed
largely under the radar because of time constraints: He was working
both as gallery director and as a faculty member at SU. In addition, he
was involved with SU’s Museum Studies program for almost 20 years.
The current exhibit places Williams’
artworks out in front, displaying wood sculptures, a lithograph,
several bronze pieces from his “Liturgical Series,” and an etching
portraying a scene in Copenhagen, Denmark. He spent two years studying
sculpture at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, and that
certainly was a productive time for him as an artist. Yet sculpture was
only one of his artistic interests.
CFAC is also displaying work by White, a
co-founder of the gallery and an artist who has shown his pieces not
only in Central New York but also in Maryland, Arkansas and Athens,
Greece. In his current work, he continues to reference facets of West
African culture such as scarification, a process of marking one’s body
with various symbols.
Elaborately marked metal strips appear
in many of the works but never in the same context. In a piece like
“Neo Totem 3,” White is working with many elements: fairly small metal
strips, a set of wooden steps suggesting a ladder, a wood block,
background colors ranging from black to orange to red. “Neo Totem 5,”
another long, vertical work, heads in a different direction,
encompassing metal strips plus a checkerboard pattern, the color
purple, and two pieces of wood, one positioned directly above the other.
These and other pieces draw on certain
patterns again and again without repetition. In a small piece from the
“Ancestral Memory” series, White plays with one metal strip. In
“Ancestral Memory XXIII,” he’s merging long strips, green color and
accompanying panels.
A third exhibit displays original artworks by London Ladd, a local artist, to illustrate a 2008 children’s book, March On! The Day My Brother Martin Changed the World.
The paintings depict the Rev. Martin Luther King in various historical
contexts, such as meeting with other civil rights leaders in “Seven
Leaders,” and working on what is commonly known as the “I Have A Dream”
speech.
“From the concept of the gallery to
where it is now,” states White, “four different locations, many artists
that came in that we exhibited the first time, to be a viable art
gallery and the fact that people of color could have a place to show
their works. It’s just what Herb wanted it to be.”
All three exhibits run through Dec. 13.
The Community Folk Art Center, 805 E. Genesee St., is open Tuesdays to
Fridays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more
information, call 442-2230.
Molly English-Bowers contributed to this story.
Founding Visionaries: The Community
Folk Art Center’s current exhibit honors the creativity of those who
started the urban gallery, Herb Williams and Jack White. Among the
pieces on display are an untitled and undated sculpture
made of wood and an assortment of bronze sculptures. On the wall is a
Herb Williams self-portrait.
