Dear Beloved Community
We as a people still face many challenges along lines of race and class. Even so, I feel optimistic about our future. In 2021 I announced The Black Gate, my vision for an artist-in-residence program, a studio, community library and archive in the heart of Frogtown. When I called on my beloved community to support my vision, you responded with encouragement and generosity.
The Black Gate is both my life’s work and my next exciting chapter. But this vision is bigger than my practice. The unacceptable truth is that the legacies of African American artists have been systematically excluded from our history and archiving institutions, in effect erasing our stories. If we don’t change how we value and honor these histories, we risk losing them forever..
The Black Gate will be a living foundation to promote, preserve, and sustain the work of African-American artists—with and within the community. This radical model of legacy-preservation will be a template for other artists to follow. In addition to housing my own studio and archive, The Black Gate will invite artists, cultural producers, and scholars to create and connect on site, and give them space and financial support to do so.
Now this vision is moving toward reality. Designs for The Black Gate campus are complete thanks to our partners at 4RM+ULA. In early 2022 we launch a $10 million capital campaign to draw support from institutions, individuals and partners. Our work is growing in tandem with appreciation for Black artistic legacies within our community. A kindred project, The Collective Black Artist Archive, is being funded by MNHS and Ford Foundation, with partners including The Black Gate, East Side Freedom Library, In Black Ink, Pillsbury House, and the Minnesota African American Heritage Museum and Gallery. In 2023, MNHS Press will publish a book about my practice, written by artist and scholar Davu Seru. The time is right. We are ready.
None of this would be possible without the faith and love of my friends, supporters and collaborators around the world and across the decades. To you, I owe my sincere thanks. If you would like to get more involved in this effort, help me open The Black Gate. Please contact us at [email protected] to set up a conversation.
There is much more to come. Please stay with us on this journey.
Designed by 4RM+ULA
There will be times we will call on you, my beloved community, to join us in this effort to shape how an artist’s legacy can reside in their own hands, in their own neighborhoods, with their own communities. I look forward to manifesting this vision with you!
ways to participate
Make a gift to The Black Gate creation fund to help it grow and bloom in our community! If you’d like to make a tax deductible gift, please make check payable to: The Black Gate and mail to: 848b Selby Ave, Saint Paul, MN 55104.
Be part of The Black Gate creation fund Sign up for updates on our journey at theblackgate.org Follow our progress on Instagram @the.black.gate If you have my artwork in your collection, share below how it found its way into your life Support in bigger ways! Connect with us at [email protected]
