It’s been almost 30 years, but Robert A. Powell still clings to a powerful, mission to enhance African American culture in the region. In 1989, Powell founded Portfolio Gallery & Education Center. The Kansas City native and renowned sculptor said he noticed a cultural void in St. Louis.
“Even black superstar artists like Gordon Parks, Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden and Richard Hunt were relatively obscure in the visual arts world here,” Powell told me.
To address the issue, Powell started Portfolio with a mission to “educate, enrich lives and foster a greater awareness of American artists of African American heritage.” Portfolio was never a stand-alone gallery. Powell created an entity with creative tentacles that spread throughout the region.
“We’ve spent 30 years bringing exposure to talented local and nationally known and budding African American artists,” Powell said. “We’ve used art as a tool in public schools for children, we’ve done mural projects, pottery and wood-carving classes and other art-making endeavors. We’ve expanded the concept of black art throughout this community.”
With his upcoming January 13th exhibit, “All Colors,” featuring the work of 66 national and local artists, Powell at the age of 72, hopes Portfolio will reach a new, all-encompassing plateau. In the revitalized Grand Center Arts District, an area once dominated by low-income and working-class blacks, black arts organizations like Portfolio and the Black Repertory Theatre saw no energized support from the region’s “epicenter for the arts.”
As hard as it was to shutter the gallery in 2015, Powell embarked on a new, bigger vision: the creation of an African-American arts sub-district under St. Louis’ Zoo-Museum District, which oversees the distribution of $76 million in tax revenue. As Nancy Fowler with St. Louis Public Radio recently reported, the bill which allows a new sub-district has languished in the legislature for more than 17 years. To have it enacted, city and county voters must approve the bill which will more than likely increase property taxes slightly.
“Our yet-to-be-met challenge is to institutionalize black art in the region. Think about the Art Museum, the History Museum, Grand Center, the Botanical Garden or the Symphony Orchestra. These are all cultural destinations supported by tax dollars. I’d like black art to be a part of the city’s portfolio of cultural attractions for locals and out-of-towners.
Powell said the legislative effort needs a committed leader, “in a position of power” is needed to push it forward. “We need a champion who would pick up the banner,” Powell said in the Public Radio interview. “If you have a good champion, someone who has the ear of civic progress, who has the ear of corporate America, then it gets done.”
In a city that has yet to capitalize off its rich, cultural history and contributions, Powell has become that local “champion” of black art. After Portfolio Gallery closed, he shifted his attention to not only showcasing black artists but economically supporting artists and organizations as well.
“What we want to do is provide an opportunity that the mainstream seems to have forgotten, or has little or no interest in,” Powell told Fowler.
Powell hopes “All Colors” which features the work of national, predominantly African-American artists such as Ed Johnetta Miller and Dean Mitchell as well as local artists like Cbabi Bayoc, will draw a national audience. His desire is to reinforce and promote the idea of supporting black art, art institutions and the need for a black arts sub-district. In a city with complex and deep racial and cultural disparities are palpable, Powell’s nonprofit offers a refreshing and much-needed antidote.
“I would like to see Portfolio play a lead role in creating and maintaining a black arts district somewhere in the region. The Missouri revised statute can be used to fund an African American sub-district to the Zoo Museum District that could include museums, galleries, dance and theatre companies, the whole artistic gamut in one specific area,” Powell said, adding, “I want to see Portfolio spear-heading and managing an effort that will create an artistic space in the region that institutionalizes black art and culture in the region and provides grants and funding for many deserving artists and art organizations in our region.”
Portfolio’s “All Colors” Visual Arts Invitational & Juried Exhibition opens with a special reception at 7 p.m. at The St. Louis Artists’ Guild on Saturday, January 13. The show runs January 13-February 28 at the St. Louis Artists’ Guild, 12 North Jackson Ave., Clayton, MO 63105. For more information, visitwww.stlouisartistsguild.org.
Sylvester Brown, Jr. is a long-time St. Louis journalist, community activist and founder of the Sweet Potato Project an entrepreneurial program aimed at empowering at-risk youth through the growing and marketing of fresh food.
