Applications are being accepted for the second phase of a public art project.
“We want to engage with the treasure of cultural history which is the Golden Blocks,” said Pax Bobrow, the Greater Augusta Arts Council’s project manager. “Our city has an incredibly rich and diverse cultural heritage.”
The arts council along with the Lucy Craft Laney Museum of Black History and the City of Augusta Housing and Community Development are collaborating on this project. The National Endowment for the Arts provides additional funding.
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The public art project focuses on an area of Augusta known as the Golden Blocks, which includes neighborhoods around Laney-Walker Boulevard.
“During the time of segregation, the area nicknamed the Golden Blocks was in the heart of Augusta’s black business community. Federal ‘Red Line’ policies prevented citizens from receiving bank mortgages within certain areas that were predominantly non-white populations, and businesses elsewhere in the city were allowed to discriminate against black patrons due to Jim Crow era laws. In the Laney Walker and Bethlehem neighborhoods, black-owned banks, insurance companies, theaters and other businesses worked to offset this discrimination and thrived, creating a strong sense of community,” according to the Laney Museum website.
The first phase began in 2019 with murals on the former Pilgrim Health and Life Insurance Co. building and the Wallace Branch Library. The insurance company mural features lyrics to a song while the library mural incorporated a poem.
Also, the last piece of phase one included installing golden blocks around the area. The blocks will have QR codes that smartphone users can scan to find out additional pieces of history.
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Corey Rogers, the historian at the Laney Museum, said the blocks have not been installed yet.
The first phase, he said, primarily focused on the businesses that influenced the area.
Rogers said he sees the second phase as highlighting the people especially the educators who influenced the people who made the Golden Blocks what it was.
“This did not exist in a void. It wasn’t necessarily the 50, 80 or 100 businesses. It was about the educators who produced those individuals who became the force in the community,” he said. “There are six or seven educational institutions in the area.”
The groups will select two artists who will collaborate on the project.
One of the first requirements of the artists will be to meet with Rogers for a historic tour of neighborhood.
The artists may use visual art, performance and stories or poems to create the work. The artists will receive a $7,000 stipend.
To learn more, contact Bobrow at pax@augustaarts.com
Charmain Z. Brackett is the Features Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com
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