Towering over a small, pink house in Pagedale is a giant tree whose wide trunk is decorated in deep purple, green and blue fabrics.
“It’s our sacred tree,” said Is’Mima Nebt’Kata, a local teaching artist. “The roots represent our past and our grounding. The branches represent our growth.”
This summer, children who attended art classes at the Pink House – a neighborhood art studio funded by Beyond Housing – decorated the trunk with 100 feet of hand-dyed cloth. Pink House children and adults like to put their minds, hands and hearts together to create, she said.
“Our tree helps to validate how beautiful our souls are,” Nebt’Kata told The St. Louis American during a tour of the studio in August. “Our tree helps us come together to work in unity and express ourselves. Our tree is a safe area. All the community comes and sees our tree.”
For five years, the Pink House has brought in local artists to hold six- to eight-week sessions in everything from photography and painting to yoga and meditation.
“I think the Pink House is a touching point for neighbors to come together creatively,” said Gina Martinez, who has been in charge of the Pink House since 2011. “It’s a place not only to get to know each but to explore the individual creative process and take creative risks together. It’s informal; it’s intimate; it is a small family.”
However, in late October, Martinez received word from a Beyond Housing representative that they would be closing the studio effective January 1.
“It’s comes down to money, and it comes down to reach as well,” Beyond Housing Executive Director Chris Krehmeyer told The St. Louis American. “I wish we would have had more time to talk to folks. We can’t get everything we want.”
The Beyond Housing leaders decided that they could reach many more children if they closed the studio and then added art classes to their afterschool programs at the Pagedale Family and Services Center, Krehmeyer said.
Pink House was originally Krehmeyer’s idea, along with Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates Jr. – whose organization, Rebuild Foundation, helped to fund the program for the first few years. Beyond Housing then became the sole funder for the last couple years, Krehmeyer said. Martinez appreciates that the Beyond Housing initiated and backed the program for five years, she said. However, it was difficult for the children, families and artists to adjust to the closing with only two months notice.
“I feel horrible about it closing,” said Beverly Moody Poke, whose granddaughter Nykia Moody has participated since the beginning. “I miss Miss Gina and her people dearly. It’s just really sad. The kids are going to be missing it a lot.”
Beverly especially loved to attend the monthly receptions, where the parents were invited to learn about what their children were doing at the studio.
“The Pink House is where you can learn things that you haven’t done before,” Nykia said during an interview with The St. Louis American in August. “You can learn life lessons. I’m learning how to forgive people for doing things that they shouldn’t have done to me and other people.”
One of Nykia’s favorite memories is of an African dance workshop this past summer. At the end, the children performed for their families in the grassy yard next to the house.
“My granny was watching me, and I was happy,” she said.
She also enjoyed the field trips they would take to the museums and other parts of the city that she’d never seen before.
“Here, there are other kids with the same mindset and the same problems, and we talk about it,” Nykia said. “If I go home, that won’t happen because people are at work or I don’t feel like talking about it because they wouldn’t understand. I just talk to kids who will understand.”
Another participant, Joy Southerland, had been learning about photography.
“I do stuff that I never thought I would be able to do,” Southerland told The American in August. “I do art that I’ve never heard of. I get to meet a lot of new people.”
Beyond Housing’s mission is to make communities a better place to live, said Vikki Collier, Beyond Housing’s director of education.
“The doors are always open,” Collier told The American in August. “You feel free to come into this space, be creative, talk about what’s going on in your life and just have some down time with family. We really want to make sure that our community is a great place to live so that’s why Pink House is very important to us. You can never underestimate a child’s potential.”
Krehmeyer said that Beyond Housing is waving the $100 annual fee for Pink House children and their families for 2017. Nykia has started going to Beyond Housing’s afterschool program for tutoring, but not many of the other Pink House participants have made that transition, Beverly said.
“They don’t do art like Miss Gina,” said Beverly. “At the Pink House, they help with homework and have projects on a daily basis.”
Martinez said that the Pink House was a neighbor and an open arts studio.
“It is a community inside of a community,” Martinez said. “It has been a platform for both individual and collaborative creativity, authentic to the spirit of the place and the relationships that developed organically. It is a platform with potential to be valuable in any and every neighborhood.”
