Annapolis has a LONG WAY to go… taken from the Capital:
Leopold nixes Clay Street art
Photos courtesy of ArtWalk
Top: The completed montage, shown here in a mock-up, would have included the central painting of a black man breaking the chains of bondage. The smaller paintings were done by children of the Clay Street area, working under the supervision of professional artists.
Bottom: The original mock-up of the proposed montage for the Arundel Center overlooking the Clay Street neighborhood shows a multi-piece collection with a central painting accompanied by smaller paintings. ArtWalk organizers said they always intended for the main piece to be done by Annapolis artist George “Lassie” Belt
Work by black artist, children deemed ‘too busy and not suitable’
By EARL KELLY and ERIN COX ,Staff Writers
Published January 06, 2008
The art montage was meant to tell the story of struggle and freedom, but the display intended for the county’s main building in Annapolis has become a controversy itself.
The painting shows an African-American man breaking the chains of bondage, with the word “Freedom” over his head. The painting’s creator, Annapolis artist George “Lassie” Belt, intended for the art to be surrounded by smaller paintings, done by children from the nearby impoverished Clay Street neighborhood.The montage was an ArtWalk project, a public arts display that documents the history of Annapolis.
But, County Executive John R. Leopold has deemed this display “too busy and not suitable” for the exterior walls of the Arundel Center.
Mr. Leopold’s office said a less controversial image could be hung outside overlooking Clay Street, but the children’s art could not be displayed on the exterior wall.
Also, unlike other ArtWalk displays, where exhibits are mounted for three years, this art could be mounted for only one year.
Community leaders see Mr. Leopold’s decision as, at best, a broken promise and at worst, censorship.
The administration contends it offered a compromise and this not an issue of race, it’s a matter of taste.
Taste or censorship
“I’m not a stranger to the world of the arts,” Mr. Leopold, himself a painter, told a reporter.
Mr. Leopold said he did not like the way this piece looked.
“I was fully supportive of the artwork on the building,” Mr. Leopold said, “but I have an obligation to ensure that – using the best judgment that I have and that my staff has – that the building be used in an appropriate manner.”
Mr. Leopold declined to discuss the project further, saying he has turned the matter over to his staff. Some of his staff have said that Mr. Leopold is reluctant to mount any art on the building for fear of the precedent it would set.
Some community leaders say the art should be mounted as planned.
“It seems to me it is a wonderful piece that would have some positive benefits for the people who live in that community, and particularly for the children,” said Ray Langston, the former mayor of Highland Beach and a black man who heads a coalition that works with the children of the Clay Street area.
“The art will give them a point of pride, and I don’t understand,” Mr. Langston said of Mr. Leopold’s decision. “I feel it is a shame.”
Archie Trader, the recreation project manager at the nearby Stanton Center, said the county executive’s decision is causing more than hurt feelings.
“This is an attempt to censor artwork that speaks to the experiences of African Americans and to this particular neighborhood,” Mr. Trader said. “It is not fair.”
County’s story
Various staff members in Mr. Leopold’s office met occasionally with ArtWalk organizers during the past year to coordinate the project.
Now, the two organizations tell different stories about how the art became contentious.
Five days before former County Executive Janet S. Owens left office, her administration wrote a letter to ArtWalk, saying the county would be delighted to host the artwork, based on a preliminary mock-up that Ms. Owens had seen.
“The Calvert Street wall at the intersection of Clay Street in combination with artist George ‘Lassie’ Belt and the children of the Stanton Center seems to provide a wonderful combination to achieve appropriate site-specific public art,” Central Services Officer Fred Schram wrote.
No contract was signed before the Leopold administration took office.
ArtWalk organizers showed Mr. Leopold’s staff the same mock-up and left the meeting believing everything was in order.
Mr. Leopold conveyed to his staff that he would agree to the mounting of a large portrait of an African American similar to the one shown in the mock-up, said Dennis Callahan, Mr. Leopold’s chief executive officer.
Mr. Callahan said the administration had been unaware that the children’s art was to be part of the exhibit.
Mr. Leopold was reluctant to mount any art because he worried that allowing the exhibit would open the door for any organization to demand that its art be displayed on the Arundel Center’s exterior walls, a staff member said.
Mr. Leopold, however, suggested a compromise: hang the one piece instead of the three that ArtWalk wanted, and allow it to be exhibited for one year instead of three years.
His staff said this was the deal from the beginning of Mr. Leopold’s term in office, and Mr. Leopold later offered to let the children’s art be displayed inside the Arundel Center.
“For the life of me, I can not see why it was not acceptable,” Mr. Callahan said.
ArtWalk’s side
ArtWalk organizers picked the Arundel Center site for a specific reason – it has a blank brick wall that measures about 80 feet-by-25 feet, and is visible directly down Clay Street.
ArtWalk organizers said they have kept asking Mr. Leopold’s office about the exhibit, but were never informed of Mr. Leopold’s decision until November.
By that time, Mr. Belt had already created the new piece for the montage, and the children had spent many afternoons working on their contributions.
ArtWalk organizers and Mr. Belt resisted inquiries from reporters for two weeks, hoping to avoid controversy.
ArtWalk officials said Mr. Leopold has never met with them, even though they have made the request to various administration staff members during the past year.
Mr. Callahan, Mr. Leopold’s chief of staff, said he had “no idea what they’re talking about” when questioned about the county executive’s inaccessibility.
Yevola Peters, Mr. Leopold’s special assistant for minority affairs, said the county executive has determined that the children’s paintings would clutter up the exhibit.
She described Mr. Belt’s work as “controversial and inappropriate.”
Mr. Leopold’s office maintains that the only acceptable display would be one portrait by Mr. Belt, such as the one that was featured in the preliminary mock-up used to illustrate the project’s basic concept.
Ms. Owens, the former county executive, called Mr. Leopold’s actions “bizarre.”
“I loved the concept,” Ms. Owens said. “Anything that helps with Clay Street and with the children and their hopes, that is a good thing … My understanding was this is to celebrate the history of Annapolis, and the painting is not permanent, if it offends someone.”
Fear and hope
Zastrow Simms, an African American community leader who worked to prevent race riots in Annapolis following Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968, shook his head at the current situation.
Standing in the lobby of the Stanton Center this week, he looked toward the Arundel Center and noted that the building stands where the jail once did, a place where blacks have been hanged.
“Why not let the children hang their art up there?” he said. “Why not let the children do something in a constructive manner and be part of the community?”
A white volunteer who works with the Clay Street children said having the children’s paintings on Arundel Center would show that main-stream society accepts them as full-fledged members.
“I can show you one block over there that has three shrines to dead teenagers,” said Rick Dion. “We are trying to show them something other than public housing and crime.”
Annapolis Alderwoman Classie Hoyle, D-Ward 3, said she was surprised by the painting of a man breaking the chains of bondage. But, she added, the promise to the children must be kept, regardless of who made it.
“I think it says that they can produce something that is good enough to go some place important,” she said. “When I first looked at the painting, it took me aback. But then when I looked at it again, I saw that he is breaking the chains of drugs, of slavery, of whatever, and getting freed. That’s the thing about art: I guess it’s how you look at it and how you see it.”
Artist and children
Mr. Belt, 56, is an associate minister who works full time as a City of Annapolis recreation director.
He frequently takes local kids – often at his own expense – to college plays, concerts and ball games in the hope that a dream will catch fire, that they will see beyond Clay Street and Obery Court, the housing project where Mr. Belt grew up.
As a young man, Mr. Belt earned college and graduate degrees in art, but abandoned a career as a New York City magazine illustrator to come back home and work with the children of his old neighborhood.
Since then, he has pursued art only as a hobby, until he was “discovered” about two years ago when a friend persuaded him to display some of his drawings at an athletic awards banquet.
Chuck Walsh, an attorney and ArtWalk co-founder, saw Mr. Belt’s art and eventually persuaded him to compose the painting for the Arundel Center.
“It is so much more than a drawing,” Mr. Belt said of the Arundel Center montage. “This thing represents not just the African American community, but every community that has people who are struggling, people who are suffering.”
As for the children’s paintings, Mr. Belt said he wanted them displayed, even if his must be omitted.
“The kids need some rays of hope,” he said. “They need to see ‘I can do something, I am not just a number in a city where so many people are shot and killed.’”
Mr. Belt then pointed to one of the children whose painting was to be part of the exhibit – her brother was shot to death when he was 16.
The children’s pieces tell the story of life in the Clay Street area. One drawing, for example, done by a 10-year-old, shows a face with tears running down the cheeks. The caption reads “Convicted Felon,” and a sign in the picture states “Social Services – Next Left, Room 1.”
Management style
Some community leaders said Mr. Leopold’s actions speak of “micromanagement” and “censorship.”
“There’s an appropriate role for the county to approve the art that goes on the building,” said County Councilman Josh Cohen, a Democrat who represents Annapolis.
“Something that’s offensive or inflammatory does not belong on a public building,” Mr. Cohen said, “but a picture of someone breaking the chains of slavery is not controversial to anyone. This is 2008 not 1863.”
“I view the Arundel Center as the public’s building,” said Mr. Cohen, who sent Mr. Leopold a letter this week asking him to reconsider his position. “It’s not the elected officials’ building.”
Councilman Jamie Benoit, D-Crownsville, criticized Mr. Leopold’s inflexibility.
“If you agree in principle that something should be up there, then the artist should decide what it is, so long as the art does not display obscenity or hate messages or illegal behavior,” Mr. Benoit said.
These elected officials are not alone in objecting to what they see as too much interference.
Alderwoman Hoyle said she intends to call Mr. Leopold about the art display, but she doesn’t expect him to change his mind.
“That’s his personality,” she said. “When he says something, that’s it.”
What next?
ArtWalk organizers said they approached the Arundel Center display the same way they did exhibits at the Naval Academy, the Harbor Master’s building, the Severn Bank building at Westgate Circle, and the parking alcove on West Street.
In each case, they presented a mock-up to show the properties’ owners the approximate work, while the artists continued working on the actual pieces for the final exhibits.
ArtWalk pieces have included a painting of John Paul Jones’ sloop Ranger fighting a battle for freedom, and Anne Catharine Green, the Annapolis resident who was America’s first female publisher and a leading opponent of British rule.
Mr. Walsh, the ArtWalk co-founder, shook his head at the limitations placed on the Arundel Center project.
“Only one panel, and only one year, and no children – that kind of content control has never been asked for by anyone from the city to the Naval Academy to private business owners,” he said.
Mr. Walsh said that, in keeping with previous displays, ArtWalk would pay the full price for commissioning, producing and mounting the art.
“It wouldn’t cost the county a nickel,” he said, “but it’s not feasible (for ArtWalk donors) to display the piece for just one year.”
ArtWalk is funded by a $70,000 grant from the Annapolis Art in Public Places Commission and a similar amount of private contributions.
Sally Wern Comport, ArtWalk’s other founder and the professional illustrator who oversees production and mounting of the ArtWalk exhibits, said she doubts that art will be displayed on the Arundel Center.
“To change the content to eliminate the children and to make the portrait (by Mr. Belt) that of someone with no relationship to African-American history is something that doesn’t work,” she said. “Why must African American history be left out, why must the children be left out, and why put it up for just one year?”
“We want to be flexible, but we don’t want to make this (display) illusory,” she said. “We will go to a less significant site.”
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